Strawberry Shortcake Party Kit: Birthday Party Decorating Made Easy

Disclosure:  This post is sponsored by Birthday In A Box.  I did receive the products below to facilitate this review.  All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

So, what do you do when your daughter decides she doesn't want a birthday on her sixth birthday, but you want her to have one anyway?  If you're me, you try to meet her somewhere in the middle and opt for having a small family gathering.  Once you've invited everyone at the last minute, you then start to panic about decor.   Birthday parties have to have decor, right?  This is where the lovely folks from Birthday In A Box come.  They have pretty much anything you could ever need or want to throw fabulous parties.

I'm talking balloons, plates, cups, pinatas, toys, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Birthday In A Box is truly your one stop shop online for all of your party decor needs.  They even themed merchandise, which was perfect because I wanted Moo's mini-birthday party to have a Strawberry Shortcake theme.  That was the theme we had originally talked about earlier this year before she decided that she didn't want a party.

Since, we were keeping things really small, I decided to order one of the smaller Strawberry Shortcake decoration kits.  Our kit came with:

1 Strawberry Shortcake Jumbo Letter Birthday Banner Kit

1 Strawberry Shortcake Table Decorating Kit

1 Strawberry Shortcake Swirl Decorations Value Pack

10 Lime Balloons

1 Red Curling Ribbon

1 Red Streamer Roll

1 Hot Pink Stars Confetti

By far the birthday banner and swirls were our favorite items.  The banner comes with numbers which makes it reusable for years and years to come.  Likewise, the swirls are reusable as well.  Once, you take them down, the metallic part will curl back up and you can place them back in the bag until you're ready to use them again.

If you're looking for girly party ideas (or boy party ideas), I would definitely recommend that you check out Birthday In A Box.  Their prices are reasonable. They have pretty much all of the cartoon/animated characters that your child would ever want. The decorations are of great quality.  I'm already excited to plan JJ's birthday party and order his decorations!

How do you decorate for your kids' birthday parties?

Almost 4

My little lady is almost 4!  I can't even believe it because it doesn't seem like that much time has gone by.  But is has and so we're in the thick of birthday party planning.  4 is one of those big birthdays and this year I wanted to give her a nice party that included more than just family.  I also wanted to get some decor elements that would make it even more special for my Moo.

So, when Signazon.com contacted me about an opportunity to work with them again, I knew it was a gift from the man upstairs!  I had already been looking at some banners and getting Moo's input on the designs.  It's her birthday after all.  Anyways, we started browsing through some of the pre-made templates.  They have a blank template feature available for too if you want something 100% unique.

They have a great variety to choose from!

Then Moo finally saw a template she liked.  She loved it actually and refused to consider any others.  So, we selected it to get started on customizing it for her party.

You can customize the font, wording and background color

Once we had all the colors to her liking and the wording to my liking, we added it to our cart and checked out.  Yep, it was just that simple.  The banner editor widget is pretty straight forward and you don't have to be a technology genius or anything to use it.  Anyways, here's a sneak peak at the finished product. 

I got her real name printed on the banner. So, of course I had to blur that out.

We're very pleased with how the banner turned out and can't wait to debut it at her upcoming birthday party!  I highly recommend that if you're thinking about adding elements to take a birthday, anniversary or any event up a notch that you check Signazon.com and consider ordering one of their custom banners.  The quality and selection are great.  Plus, delivery doesn't take a million years either!

Have you ever used a customized birthday or event banner?

It's Almost That Time

Happy 11-1-11 everyone!!!  Yes, it's November already. Can you believe it?  I can't. This year has gone by so fast that it was almost a blur.  Thank goodness for cameras, scrapbooks and journals to keep track of the memories.

Anyways, over here we're getting ready for Thanksgiving, birthdays and Christmas!  It's almost time for all of them.  I'm getting ready to be in full on planning mode.  I'm in the thick of making my grocery list for Thanksgiving dinner.  Last year I had to hunt down ham bits and collard greens like a mad woman.  This year I'm buying both early.  I can cut up my greens and stick them in the freezer until I'm ready to start cooking.

And today, I'm going to be designing invitations for Moo's 3rd birthday party.  She's having two parties.  I know lucky her.  Thankfully, I can use the same invite and only have to change the date.  The second birthday party will be a joint party with me.  Yep, we're both December babies.

As if I'm not already going to have my plate full, I have to finish my Christmas shopping.  One year we did stuffed stockings in addition to one main gift for each person.  My family has been requesting that we do it again for years and this year I'm bringing it back.  So, I've been keeping my eyes posted for some good items to stuff in them.

It's going to be hard to sneak stuff for Moo's stocking since she always accompanying me on shopping trips for our alone Mommy-Daughter time.  I might have to sneak out during a nap one day because I've spotted some things I want to pick up.  And speaking of gifts don't forget about the My Memories Suite Giveaway going on.

So, as you can see I'm going to be a very busy mommy this month and well into next month.  I'm not complaining though because holidays are truly magical for our family.  It's the time when we are our happiest and all together cutting the fool.

Have you started any holiday yet?

25: A Start of New Adventures

Well, my birthday is finally here!!!  Turning 25 seems like such an incredible milestone to me.  I'm five years from being the big 3-0 and halfway to 50.  And while some of my family and friends have pointed out that I'm getting 'up there,' I don't feel the slightest bit old.  I'm rather looking forward to the years of my life that are to come.

If there is one thing that I have come to learn and appreciate in my 25 years on this earth, it's that life is precious and should be cherished.  In a world where people are dying as young as newborns, I'm truly to blessed to have made this far and be in relatively good health.  That being said and with my newly acquired outlook on my life, I took the time to think and write down some adventures/goals that I want to work on accomplishing now. 

And I know it's important to set deadlines as motivation to complete these goals.  So, I've given myself until my 30th birthday to finish them all.  As I mark things off my list and blog about them, I've decided that every birthday I will add something new to that list.  Once, I hit my big 30th birthday I will take inventory of what wasn't completed and ask myself is it something that I'm still passionate about accomplishing.  If not it won't make it on to next five year list of adventures/goals I want to accomplish.

Anyways, I'm hoping that this will inspire some of you to take inventory of what you'd like to start accomplishing or working towards changing in your lives.  I also hope that if you all see something on my list that you can help me with then by all means lend a hand.  I'm always open to connecting with the people who read my blog.  Words inspire action and action brings about change.

Before I get to my list, I just want to say I've created a poll in the sidebar.  Please go by and cast your vote on what you all think baby number two will be.  Also, have you noticed that I've made some changes to the blog layout?  It's a lot less cluttered on my main page.  Don't forget to invite your Facebook friends to join our fan page.  And also don't forget to upload or email me your Christmas tree or holiday pictures to go in our Happy Holidays 2010 album!! 

List of Adventures to Accomplish by 12/19/15
~Attend Fashion Week in New York
~Buy a House
~Get a New Car
~Meet Oprah Winfrey
~Write my First Book
~Publish my Book
~Attend Fashion Week in Charlotte
~Go to Paris
~Vacation in Spain
~Take a Trip to Disney Land/World
~Go on a Cruise
~Attend 5 Blog Conferences
~Walk a Red Carpet
~Go to Gabba Land (totally in love with Yo Gabba Gabba)
~Visit my BFF in Philly
~Go Back to College
~Take a Photography Class
~Make a VLog
~Put More Effort into my Etsy Store
~Start my Own Company & Non-profit
~Learn More HMTL
~Have my Fibroids Removed
~Raise $5000 for my GiveBack Charties
~Exercise More
~Get a PenPal
~Meet Some of my Blogger BFFs in Person
~Buy Some Power Tools (i love diy projects)
~Remodel my Mom's House


6 More Days Till Christmas!!

My Weekend WrapUp

Well, I didn't get much wedding planning done this weekend like I'd hoped to. Instead, I spent Saturday riding back to my home town for a surprise 21st birthday party for my little brother.  I feel so old because it seems like it took forever for him to turn 21 and he's about to graduate from college with his bachelor degree.  Anyways, he really enjoyed his party and the rest of the family was totally surprised when we walked in.  They had no idea we were coming.

I'm really glad that I went because I was in seafood heaven.  I mean we had crab legs, fried shrimp, fried fish, corn on the cob and spuds.  There was no shortage of sugar either between the cheesecake, cupcakes and the Paula Dean Flaky Butter Cake that I had on the way down.  We just had a really lovely time celebrating such a wonderful event.

It felt good to be back home and hanging out with my family.  It's been almost a month since I've moved and about three weeks since I was last home to visit.  They really enjoyed seeing Moo and how much she's grown.  Yes, it's amazing how much people change in so little time.  My niece looked so much more grown up and she's reading on her now!!!  Shocker because she just started kindergarten only two weeks ago.

I'm glad that some of the tension between my mom and I has eased.  I still don't think that she's 100% ok with my choice to be back with Jay, but she's learning to accept that it is what it is.  This is my life and I'm living it the best way I know how to live it for me and my family.  I can't keep trying to please everybody else because I only end up not pleasing myself and I'm tired of putting myself last.

Sunday was just a very laid back day.  I still haven't located a church for us to attend up here.  I feel kind of bad because  I really enjoy going to church and I want to make sure that Moo is developing spiritually as well.  So, I will certainly be scouting out a few places.  I'm actually leaning towards joining the church across from the college I went to.  I really enjoyed the services when I was staying on campus. 

The congregation is very nice and the pastor seemed very friendly and knew all his members personally even though there's like 200 of them not including all the kids.  Now that's true dedication right there.  I'm sure that I know 200 people personally but imagine if all those 200 people had kids and some even have grandkids and great grandkids.  It's crazy, but goes to show that not all preachers are in it for the money.  It's nice to see that preachers are taking the time to connect with their flock.

I'm hoping that this church will be the right fit for us.  If it isn't then I guess we'll just keep trying until we find the right one.