Decorate your baby shower with butterflies. There’s something so sweet and dreamy about butterflies. Use this idea board to inspire new ideas for the next shower you plan. It’s perfect for the moms-to-be who love everything natural and girlie.

Butterfly Wood Plaque from Pottery Barn Kids

Butterfly Soaps from ababyshower.com

Hanging Glitter Butterflies from The Company Store

Butterfly Cookie Cutters from Beau-coup

A common trend for children’s birthday parties involves renting an inflatable bounce house for kids to jump in, throwing themselves around like maniacs for as long as parents will let the party keep hopping. This idea is a great way to entertain the little ones during birthday parties, but it also serves as an excellent way to integrate exercise into your child’s parties. By making fitness fun, you help to establish lifelong associations among exercise, energy and enthusiasm.

Try throwing a themed party for your children this year that includes fitness on both a fun and functional level by using some of these ideas:

• Got a soccer fan running around the house? Host a soccer-themed party and include a friendly game as a part of the entertainment.
• Give your kids and their friends a rockin’ dance party.

• Make a splash by hosting a pool party at your local YMCA. You can even organize water games like Shark and Fishies to encourage the kids to swim a little harder.
• Have a bowl-o-rama birthday at the bowling alley.
• As a part of the entertainment, organize a bike ride or group rollerblading outing at the local park.

These type of events offer the perfect way to play while you celebrate your child’s big day!

When I was looking for a fun, casual venue for an event I was planning, I stumbled upon the zoo. Since most kids love animals and hence love the zoo, I thought that this would also be a great place to have a birthday party. Keep reading for tips on how to make your party, wild, crazy and lots of fun!

1) Check out your local zoo’s website. In addition to finding out if they have special birthday packages, you can get all the details about having your party there. In November and December, for example, I learned that the San Francisco Zoo hosts ice skating parties at their zoo.

2) Get chaperones. Depending on how many kids you invite, you might want to gather up some parents and family members to help you supervise and keep track of all your guests.

3) Favors. Cute stuffed animals or a small bag full of kid-sized water bottles and snacks will be much appreciated after a long day at the zoo.

4) Food. The best thing about having a party at the zoo is that food can be conveniently ordered and purchased there. You might want to see if they also provide utensils and paper plates. A birthday cake or cupcakes designed with animals are sure to be a big hit with guests!

5) Activities. The zoo itself is filled with tons of things for kids to do. For the party, you could bring crayons and coloring pages of animals for a little something extra.

6) Invitations and Thank you cards. Here are a few animal themed birthday party invitations and thank you cards that would be perfect for a zoo party!

Have an aspiring cowboy in your family? Here’s few tips on how to plan a cowboy birthday party that they’ll get a kick out of.

1) Invitations. After you’ve gone over the guest list, choose or have your child use their favorite invitation. Here are some adorable ones from Tiny Prints.

2) Decorations. Sites such as Oriental Trading sells fun decorations such an inflatable cactus and gold nugget bubble gum to give as favors. They even have a pinata shaped like a cowboy boot!

3) Activities. Purchase inexpensive cowboy hats, vests, bandannas and other fun costumes for the kids to play dress up. Play pin the tail on the horse. Or how about playing pass the cowboy hat to a Country Western music CD. The person who ends up with the hat when the song stops wins!

4) Food. Barbecue goes best with a cowboy themed party. Serve hamburgers, hot dogs, corn bread and baked beans. End with a cowboy shaped cake and root beer floats!

At our wedding last Friday, my husband and I incorporated sweet treats at our reception for our guests. They were such a big hit with the kids there, I thought it would be a wonderful idea for a birthday party. We had Jones’s green apple and cream sodas to match with our sage and cream theme and also filled our dessert table with a tier of Kara’s cupcakes with butterfly and cherry blossom toppings.

If you are planning a birthday party for your little one, you may not know where to begin. Picking a theme always makes it fun and does help with your planning. Once you choose a theme, picking out things like invitations and paper goods are a lot easier since everything should follow that theme.

A lot of little girls that I know love everything princess. How about having a princess birthday theme complete with outfits her and her friends can play dress up in and a crown for her to wear? There are tons of paper supplies with princess designs on them from napkins to plates. Pottery Barn for kids has an adorable Garden Princess party themed collection. An activity that might be fun is to have everyone make their own princess jewelry that they can take home as favors. Kara’s cupcakes also offers a cupcake decorating kit that kids can have fun with.

Here’s a few of our newest princess inspired invitations that is sure to delight the birthday girl and her friends.

When I think of summer, I think of all the summer’s past and what made each so memorable was the parties! Whether outdoors at a park or beach or indoors at someone’s house, summer parties celebrate everything wonderful about the warm season.

Planning parties can be stressful. Breaking down the steps to planning can help ease the process and even make it fun. So here we go.

1) Location. Think about whether you want to have the parties indoors or outdoors. While having an outside party for summer seems ideal, you also need to think about mosquitoes and other outdoor pests. In addition, finding cover under a tree or putting up a tent are great ways to prevent getting directly in the heat. You might want to pack sunscreen or give them as fun favors to guests.

2) Type of party. Is this going to a birthday party with a specific theme or a casual backyard party with friends? Thinking about who your audience is will be important in choosing what type of theme you have. Kid’s parties can focus on a specific character or favorite color while you may want to throw a 4th of July for friends and family.

3) Choose and send out the invitations. If you have a specific theme in mind you can choose party invitations that match. For example, here is a great design for a 4th of July gathering.

This one is perfect for her summer birthday party.

4) Food and drinks. Since it’s summer you’ll want to incorporate fresh seasonal fruits such as strawberries and watermelons. The type of food and drinks can also be your party theme. Just remember to budget for the amount of people you are expecting and try to stick with it.

5) Have fun! Be as creative as possible and make this the event of the season!

Continuing from my previous post about Kara’s cupcakes, I thought I would show you some cute designs that would go great with a Teddy Bear themed baby shower or birthday party. Teddy bears are popular for both boys and girls. Here, you can give away Kara’s cute treats as favors which would match perfectly with our adorable baby shower invites.

Or how about having a spring themed shower or holiday shower with baby chicks?