Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Biggest 'Littlest Pet Shop' Birthday Party Post EVERS.

My efforts to create a handmade party within a trademarked theme went over pretty well, I must say. My 5-year old loved her "Littlest Pet Shop" party. But then again, the presents were her favorite part. I could have had soggy streamers & booger cupcakes & she wouldn't have cared. As long as there were presents. I admit I stressed & felt guilty that I couldn't buy every "Littlest Pet Shop" birthday decor ever made. But, I got over it. I was even rushed at the last minute & didn't have time to make a banner, hang balloons or create our traditional birthday sidewalk chalk messages. But, that's OK. That's one thing I realized when trying to come up with ways to plan this {somewhat challenging} party: the most important part of any party is the person you're celebrating.

With that said, let's get down to the details!!
The invitations: I LOVED how the invitations came out. Even if they didn't turn out how I expected. They turned out BETTER than I had planned! They were a great start & perfect feel for the party theme.

And! Oh. My. Golly. I just got these back from Walmart. I ordered them online, the same time I ordered the 1-hour prints for the invitations. I took one of my Littlest Pet Shop photos & had it made into stickers!!! Twenty 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" stickers cost $4.77 with tax. They turned out SO SUPER CUTE! They'll be the "seal" on the back of the envelopes when we send out the thank-you notes. I am very impressed & will be using this service again!

The personalized photo invitations & stickers were my favorite detail of the party.

The food: My mom & I were able to shop for some yummy fruits & tasty homemade breads the day before the party at the Farmer's Market. Party guests munched on strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, raspberries, pineapple, Bing & Rainier cherries, guava & apricots. Blueberry bread, apple bread, zucchini bread & cheese bread were also served.
I also invented (OK, not really invented) a delicious punch that tastes like an orange creamsicle! Just mix vanilla ice cream with orange flavored pop. You can also see from the photo that we decorated the cups with Littlest Pet Shop stickers.
The first thing the wee party guests received were little tags, each embellished with their name & a different colored heart. Set up in one corner of the room was an "Adoption Center". I displayed Pazely's Littlest Pet Shop centers & scattered packaged pets all over. Each pet also had a tag attached to it. The kids got to go over to the adoption center & find the pet with the tag that matched the one they received with their name on it.
The craft: the kids got to decorate little white wedding favor boxes (12/$1 @ The Dollar Tree) with markers, jewels, stickers, paper, etc as homes for their new Little Pets.

Here's how some of their boxes turned out:
And I had to join in on the fun too:
The game: I stole this game idea from my friend Jules. Pazely helped me color some Littlest Pet Shop character pages that I printed out from THIS WEBSITE. I randomly scattered the pages all over the floor. As I played music, the kids bounced around like bunnies or hopped around like frogs etc. & when the music stopped, the kids found a colored picture to remain standing on. I had all the pictures also printed out in smaller versions that I stuck in a hat. I pulled out a picture & whoever happened to be standing on that picture received a prize! That person was out of the game & I continued on until everyone won a prize.The prize? I made playdough & the kids got to choose the color they wanted. I purchased a 4-pack of small plastic containers at The Dollar Tree & attached (with double-stick tape) some pictures I printed out & colored. I also named the colors: Puppy Purple, Lizard Lime, Tabby Cat Tan & Bea-u-TEAL-ful Butterfly. My fingers ended up being as intense & colorful as the playdough. I used the Neon food colors made by McCormick. I really like using them.
Next was cupcake time! I crafted up more cupcake picks like I made for Pazely's birthday celebration at preschool a month ago. I just cut 3 different sized circles from random patterned scrapbook paper & glued them to bamboo skewers cut in half. You can use this idea for ANY theme.

I had these really cool candles I was waiting to use for a special occasion. I got them at Liquidation World. They are thick & made of plastic & the flame is colored!! Green, pink, orange, blue & red.
After cupcakes were consumed, it was time for a treasure hunt!



Handmade "Littlest Pet Shop" party bags were filled with stickers, glow-in-the dark bracelets, magnet scene sets, a mini coloring book (that I made by resizing the images I used from the game & stapling them together), crayons & bubbles.
For the bubbles, I purchased a 9-pack of wedding favor bubbles at The Dollar Tree & wrapped them each in a strip of paper & embellished with stickers.
The treasure hunt was really fun & perfect for kids who can't read yet. The day before the party I took pictures of some items around our house & sent them to the 1-hour photo processing at Walmart. At the party, while the kids were eating cupcakes, I set up the treasure hunt by first hiding the party favor bags in a secret location & then I hid the photos in the proper spots. When the kids were ready for the hunt, I gave them the first photo clue: the garden hose. So, they ran to the garden hose to find ANOTHER photo clue: the pink picket fence. They ran in the backyard to the pink picket fence & found ANOTHER picture clue waiting for them. And so on & so on. The last picture clue led them to where the favor bags were hiding! And they were a hit!!! Pazely is still dragging her bag around with her wherever she goes.

Here is a picture of Pazely finding a picture clue in the mailbox.
After all the fun indoors, the kids were set free to play outside in their swimsuits. Otter pops were ordered up & water fun was had!
Pazely & I took many fun birthday party fun jumpy pictures.

And she was a very satisfied party girl! After the party we went to the park for a bbq, boating, playing & jet skiing. Here is how she looked on our drive home from a very full & very happy day.





I was very happy to take on the challenge of a Trademarked themed party. It stretched my creative party planning process & I would happily do it again!

34 comments:

  1. BRAVO to you!!! my party hat is completely off to you. =) our party for tomorrow is not even in the same league as yours. =) well that's no big surprise since its a non-party party. lol. didn't have the time or creativity or supplies available for her invites to turn out as cute as yours, but had fun with distributing them digitally (gotta love internet). =) her dad thinks they're the grooviest invitation ever! so that's a definite score, we'll see what she thinks. the email went out with a couple links attached to it, one was to my blog. you should pop by to check it out! have a FANTABULOUSO holiday weekend. =)

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  2. My my my...what an adorable page you have!

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  3. Everything looks fantastic! Even I'd love to be at THIS party! You did an amazing job with the party, I love all of your game ideas, too!

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  4. This is an awesome post! I have a party coming up in short order as well, I can't believe my little girls turning two (where do the days, months, years go?) and I will be using some of these ideas. The photo scavenger hunt is my favorite but it'll have to wait a year or three I think. :-)

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  5. You rock!! I love the Adoption Center idea, so cute!!

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  6. I just love your blog, I have some serious reading to do!

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  7. You really went all out! Great Job Mom!

    Kids love treasure hunts don't they. My MIL does one for my kids every Easter.

    Happy 4th!

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  8. Wow, what an amazing party! Thanks for all the wonderful ideas, I have a party to plan for my son next month and I can't wait to get started.

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  9. Wow! Best bday party ever! You did a wonderful job preparing for her party. My 4yr old is just now getting into LPS...

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  10. Happy Birthday, Pazely-pie! Good job on the party; looks like a good time was had by all :)

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  11. this is amazing! You are such a creative lady and I can't believe how much you get done in such a short amount of time!!

    By the way, for a grown up version of the punch, my friend swears by this: she mixes orange juice and vanilla rooibos (red) iced tea together. I didn't try it but her and her fiancee LOVE it and swear it tastes just like creamsicles.

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  12. Wow you're so brave! My almost 4yo is talking about her b'day party and I've decided to go the easy option, a garden tea party, instead of anything adventurous (like you did). Those breads you bought sound scrummy, getting hungry now thinking about them!

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  13. WOW-so many amazing ideas here. I love how you found so many handmade ways to use this theme. I'm so impressed-by the party and that bakery bag! You're so creative!!!

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  14. you are the best mom ever nik! your girls are so lucky - happy birthday pazely!!!

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  15. AMAZINGLY fabulous party!!!

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  16. love it all! i am exhausted just looking at the pics! :)

    isn't party planning the best? even when we feel all twisty and kerfuflled it is still the niftiest feeling when you pull it all off!

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  17. I have done the tag thing for grab bags AND the game! I may have to adapt some of these ideas- Olivia is threatening me with a Scooby Doo 4th Birthday Party. :)

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  18. What fun! LOVE the stickers too...I have not ever thought of that!
    Working on Miss M's bash and picked up some TREASURES for the stacked plates you posted some time back...once I get unpacked from our trip I will get started on the dishes.

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  19. You really pulled it off in such an amazing way! So glad you posted it all (who wouldn't) Those kids must have been in LPS heaven! Love the adoption center and actually everything you concocted! Kudos girl!

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  20. And you think you didn't do enough? Geesh! You make the rest of us look bad. Great party! By the way, my word verfication for my comment is "fartio". I thought you would appreciate the humor in that!

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  21. that is one super fantastic party!! i am just a bit jealous...why doesn't anyone plan anything like that for the big girls like me? :)

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  22. Wow! That is awesome. I did a LPS party for my daughter's 5th b-day in May, but it was much more simple.

    http://ourniftynotebook.blogspot.com/2009/05/birthday-party-weekend.html

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  23. Thanks for sharing! I will be using these ideas in my daughter's party next month. AND I featured you on my blog today, The Gift Closet. Feel free to snag one of my "I was featured @ The Gift Closet" buttons for your blog. Have a great day! :)

    Heather
    www.thegiftcloset.blogspot.com

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  24. I am about to have a littles pet shop bday for my 5 year old. This was so fun to read! May I ask where I could get the fabulous recipes for all of the healthy bread? thanks!

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  25. We did the picture treasure hunt for my nieces unicorn birthday and the kids LOVED it!

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  26. She Is SO Lucky... Im 11 And I Still Wish I Could Have A Party Like That -_-
    :) I Hope She Had A GREAT TIME!!!
    Im Obsessed With Littlest pet Shops

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  27. Where did you get the LPS for the adoption center? I'm having an LPS party for my daughter, but don't want to spend a fortune on party favors. I love the idea of the adoption center and having them create their one little homes for the pets!

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  28. Hi HallieandAiden!
    I kept my eyes open for the cheaper packages of LPS animals. I happened to get single packages for just 2 dollars each on sale. Sometimes buying the larger packages with multiple pets inside is cheaper. It wasn't a great expense for me since there were only a few party guests. And if it is the only party favor then sometimes it is worth it. Good luck & have fun!!

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  29. Thanks so much for giving ideas for a non bought decor theme. It is so hard not to spend a ton of money on the decor that gets thrown out anyways. Love your idea for the invitations. Did you glue the info to the back of the picture?

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    1. Hi Angie! I printed the party info on the back of the cardstock first. Then, I glued the picture on the front. And lastly, I distressed the cardstock on the front to give it that "vintage polaroid" feel. :)

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  30. Thanks for sharing nice post! I really appreciate this posting. You have made my day! You can have a look on my Online Pet store website, I would be waiting for your valuable response. Thank you again!

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  31. But where did you get the littlest pet shop stickers/printouts for the center of the cupcake picks?

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    1. I made them from 3 different sizes of circle cutouts glued together & then topped with a sticker. (I think I got the stickers at Walmart. But that was a while ago. Maybe the dollar store??) And then I glued everything to a bamboo skewer.

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