Touchdown: Peanut's 4th Birthday Party

This past Saturday we kicked off Peanut's football party with some of his school buddies, besties & cousins.

For the party invitations I uploaded a photo of Peanut (donning football pads, swim trunks & a bike helmet) into pic monkey- shocking I know- and added all the party details. 

When it came to decor, it was orange and navy all the way. Thankfully we had nearly all the necessary Chicago Bears garb on hand so I just arranged it accordingly. 

In the family room we set up a buffet featuring tailgate favorites: Jimmy John's subs, pretzels, Pirates Booty, veggie tray & water bottles. I used artificial turf (purchased off the roll in the carpet section of Menards) to mimic a football field. 

Orange practice cones flanked each end of the table and held balloon bouquets. I reused the glass jars and leftover straws from Bear's party. For the water bottles I simply removed the packaging and wrapped them in coordinating ribbon from Michaels. I love the pop of orange they brought to the table.

In the kitchen, I updated the chalkboard sign with Peanut's stats. The pennant bunting I fashioned out of cardstock &  Chicago Bears ribbon I found in the Target dollar bin. 

As for the table, we covered it with a roll of packing paper from the dollar store. Using wrapping paper as a tablecloth for kids' parties is so practical (quick clean up: roll up and toss) and looks much better than plastic tablecloths. For the centerpiece I used the remaining turf, football helmet & cupcakes.

These were the cupcakes I blogged about earlier. The toppers I created in pic monkey.  I am working on writing up a how-to tutorial and hope to have it ready to share next week.

For favors, I made fudge covered Oreo football cookies. They were so simple…I have a post coming to show you just how easy these are to whip up (tutorial here). My neighbors gifted me the cake pedestal for my birthday a few years ago. I love that I can coordinate it to my parties with the quick addition of some ribbon. For this affair I used the leftover water bottle ribbon. The cookie bags were tied with the Target dollar spot Chicago Bears ribbon.

Once our little guests arrived, they worked up quite an appetite jumping in the bouncy house. Thankfully I had PBJ ready to go in case subs weren't to their liking.

After some more bouncing action and a few games of basketball, it was time for cake. I'm happy to report that Peanut used a fork this go around. And for full disclosure, I did not make the cake as I had planned. Hubby grabbed an extra at the bakery…smart man that Hubby:)

 This shindig was one for the record books and a touchdown all the way.

 Happy 4th Birthday Peanut!