I used some of the ideas from my inspiration board, but also came up with other things.  Here are the details:

For food I tried to keep it semi-healthy.  While I love the look of a dessert table covered with candy a la Amy Atlas, the truth is I and most parents I know don’t really love our kids to be full of sugar.  So for the sweet stuff, besides the cake, I had cupcakes, fossil cookies and grapes in individual cups. For the savory stuff, I had individual cones of Veggie Booty (my son’s fave), mini cups of edamame, and cups with julienned vegetables, some with ranch dip, some without… and of course pizza which seems compulsory for a kids party.  I served the latter because most kids eat it, but funnily enough my son doesn’t.   The cupcake toppers were created using a template from Paper and Cake on etsy.  Then for the fossil cookies I decided to make it super easy on myself and bought ready made sugar cookie dough which I just baked normally, then when the cookies were still warm from the oven I pressed a dinosaur form into them.  Presto! Dino fossil cookies without much fuss, but they looked great on the table.  I also served chocolate milk in cute vintage-y glass bottles and paper straws from Sweet Lulu.

For fun, I had a bouncy castle, but since there could only be 5-6 kids in there at a time, I figured I needed other activities.  I had a “decorate a dino” station, with ready made cut out shapes of different dinos, and buckets of stickers and googley eyes.  This station was a hit with the girls who were more into the crafting aspect.  I also had the requisite “dino dig”.  I filled two galvanized metal buckets with play sand and buried dinosaur skeletons into each of them.  Kids then dug them out using sifters and brushes, like mini paleontologists.  I’d seen different sites with how-to make your own dino bones, etc, but again I opted for the quickest route since time is not always readily available with a little one just a few months old.  I bought a Dino Excavation Kit from Lakeshore Learning, it had the skeletons and the sifters and the brushes.  My twist on the dig is that each dino had a number inscribed on it and the number matched a prize in a big bin I had next to the dino dig.  As I told some of the parents at the party, as a child I was not one to dig for digging’s sake, so I wanted there to be a reward for the digging, it also made it into more of a game.

Lastly for the goodie bags, everyone left with personalized bags filled with dino loot.  From dino stickers, dinosaur toy and a treat bag filled with chocolate rocks and a mini dinosaur, topped off with a matching tag.  Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the the dino chocolate rock bags, but I heard back from some parents and I know they were well received. Imagine eating rocks, how cool

Happy Birthday my big boy!  Hope it was memorable.

p.s. My son’s personalized T-shirt was from Priceless Kids yet another etsy vendor.

Last year we hosted an art party, this year I’m going with a dinosaur theme.  Cars, trucks, etc are still my son’s favorite, but this last year he discovered the world of dinosaurs through one of his favorite shows on Nick Jr., Dino Dan.  In one episode Dan has a birthday party and, of course, it was a dinosaur party.  Ever since then I’ve been planning on throwing my son a dinosaur party, so I’ve been surfing the internet and I’ve found some great ideas/resources.  Here are some that I’m planning on taking inspiration from:

Clockwise from the top:  chocolate milk bottles from here; edible fondant dino cake toppers from here; dino party hats from here; dino terrarium from here; pin the hat on the dino from here; dino excavation from here;  fossil cookies from here; molten lava cakes from here.

By now you know that beyond photography, I like design and entertaining; these are just ways to further express my creativity.  The design aesthetic for the evening was all inspired by the Indian Summer Night peacock theme I previously featured.  Fortunately there are some great stylish alternatives to evite which helped to set the tone of the evening without requiring actual mailing.  My personal favorite, cocodot.com, super stylish, with a lot of customization and recently dubbed the Bergdorf Goodman of invitations.  The key to the evening was a decor that set the mood with the layering of light, color and authentic Indian cuisine.  Fun!

Next party on my mind, my son’s birthday, but that wont be for a while.  In the meanwhile, I hope this inspires your own summer entertaining.

If you haven’t discovered Sweet Paul yet, run to them.  It’s a fantastic food/entertaining magazine full of delicious recipes, and all beautifully photographed.  Their first issue features a great idea for a kid’s circus themed birthday party, but done in a super cool way.  Check it out!

I can’t wait for the next installment due August 15.

Now we just have to see if we can pull it together.

We had a lovely Fourth of July with friends.  Yummy food plus relaxing in the backyard is just what the doctor ordered.  I hope yours was great too. The shot above is my favorite of the day.  My son snatched the cowboy hat off my head and started to play peekaboo with it.  I think he looks great in hats but wears them so rarely.

OK, let’s back up a little now.  A few weeks ago I had posted an inspiration board for July 4 which I used as my starting off point for our celebration.  The inspiration board helped me zero in on the fact that I wanted our barbecue to have a country feel.  The minute I knew that I was able to easily select the fabrics and ribbons below in the discount fabric district in downtown Los Angeles.  The color scheme is distinctly red, white and blue, without being obviously so, which was perfect for me.

After that, it was just a question of deciding on a menu, something delicious with a fresh-from-the-farm vibe.  An heirloom tomato salad, french country potato salad, and bowls full of fresh berries for a decorate your own cupcake stand, definitely hit the mark.  I had planned to make watermelon and basil margaritas for the grown ups; I had seen the recipe on the Martha Stewart website and it sounded simply divine.  But in my quest for a healthy balance of fun and theme I decided it was one item on the menu that required too much attention given the casual occasion with friends and kids.  Below is a collage of the end result.

I hand made the bunting banner using the fabrics and used the remnants as a kiddie table tablecloth and a buffet table runner.  One of my favorite details of the day was the star-shaped ice cubes for the kids’ watered down raspberry juice.  My last minute flash of inspiration was to use my son’s wagon as a drink cooler. I really liked the vintage red truck from the inspiration board and thought that the wagon was a practical stand in that provided a similar feel.  Everyone at the party asked where I got my three-tiered stand, so in case you are wondering, you can buy it here.  I hope you enjoy the final result, I enjoyed putting it together.

I had a super busy weekend with shoots, mini-shoots, and Father’s Day celebrations for my adorable husband. So to take my mind off of things, I’m party planning.

July 4 is not usually a big thing in our family as neither my husband nor I grew up in the U.S.  But our son is born here, so he is American.  My son, who is only two and a half, bless his heart, already understands the idea of decorations and loves it when the house looks dressed up for a special occasion. For him, I’ve decided to embrace the whole idea of celebrating July 4 by putting together a little inspiration board.

My idea of the perfect July 4 celebration is less about patriotism and more about Americana with a touch of country.

Come back again to see what we end up putting together.

To all dads out there, Happy Father’s Day.