on june 9th 2012 asher davis schreibman turned 3....
i was so excited that we were able to host his party on his birthday this year.
when i realized the actual date fell on a saturday i booked the clubhouse/pool in our neighborhood.
actually it was after we attended another 3 year old birthday at a friends house that i freaked out and thought..."no way in this lifetime am i going to have 12+ 3 year olds running around my house in the dead of summer" when i was 9 months pregnant. not a chance.
so i quickly booked our clubhouse and was thrilled they had recently dropped the price for the rental significantly!
i began planning a theme and pinning on pinterest MANY months in advance. to say it was around the time i found out i was pregnant would not be a lie. i was a little worried i wouldnt have the time or energy between being a full time mom, working, decorating a nursery and running a family. best idea i had was to plan far in advance.
i planned to take a 1/2 day on friday to set up since the clubhouse had not been rented. thursday at 5 pm i got an email stating someone rented the clubhouse for friday at the last minute for an evening party. i completely freaked knowing there was no way i could set this all up the morning of with the party starting at 1030. thankfully they were out of the clubhouse friday night by 9 pm and we started to set up. the only problem was that my body was starting to shut down as it normally does around that time. i was quite a sight to be seen, but we had amazing help from aunt janet, cousin brittan and softa. no way i could have pulled it off with out their help. they put up with me and all of my anal decorating ridiculousness... and when i say ridiculousness i mean it. i am flat out of my mind.
we got it all set up and crashed for the night.....till we woke up to "mr golden sun" (as asher would say) the next morning for the big birth-day!
i pinned this cute idea made with cocktail drink umbrellas and it was super easy to make. the center circle is part of the birthday set designed for ashers party
we decided to go with the crab/beach shack theme....
each kid got to take home a red or teal bucket with a hand cut (yup I cut all 16 of them) white crab decal. (i desperately need a cricut....with all of this crafting i do...hint,hint, hanukkah?!?) inside of the bucket was a placemat they could color that was sailboat themed, a beach ball and bubbles.
each year i buy asher a towel and have his name embroidered on it. i found this cute lobster/crab towel at target. its a nice summer birthday tradition!
i saw this adorable idea somewhere. i bought red plates at walmart and use red cardstock left over from another valentines day teacher craft to make the legs and claws. so cute i couldnt stand it.
another adorable pinterest idea. wrapped up the napkins and silverware (both purchased on clearance at target) with hemp and a mint lifesaver. Ahoy mate!
close up of the crab decal that i cut out. i copied the crab design off asher's tshirt i had made on etsy.
water bottle wraps that matched the theme...
the snack shack. love this idea. found the cute umbrella at party city and used additional beach buckets for the pretzels, chips and fish.
side note on the beach buckets. i searched high and low for these at wholesale. everywhere wanted to charge $3+ per bucket. CRAZY. one day i stumbled into michaels when i had a 30% off my entire purchase coupon and found these red and teal buckets. each bucket ended up costing $.30. YES 30 cents....I talked about this steal of a deal for days. philip seriously thought i was nuts, but this momma loves a bargain!
i printed out the matching table card designs and added in my own text and then backed them with more recycled red cardstock. i also already had all the cardstock from the past few years parties so no new paper purchases for this party...just ink....
i enlisted my mom to help with the watermelon beach bucket idea. she was always the one making cute watermelon boats growing up...we used starfish and crab mini cookie cutters to cut out some of the fruit shapes. i think it turned out super cute!
this beach ball fruit tart was a huge hit. i didnt follow the recipie exactly... but its a big sugar cookie that i rolled out and baked topped with about 1/2 cup of lemon filling, 8 oz of cream cheese mixed together in the kitchen aid and a tub of cool whip folded in. spread over the cookie and then top with fruit. i included appleas, red grapes, strawberries, pineapple, kiwi and cantaloupe. you can really do anything as long as you have a nice color combo and you make sure to place them properly. and for the record, it was delicious. i was skeptical but it really turned out well.
we decorated a few of the adult tables with some moss, hand painted crabs, umbrellas and birthday sticks!
i also hand made the birthday banner, back each letter with red card stock, hand painted the wooden letter and cut and painted the surf boards in the back out of boxes we had sitting around. i reused the table skirt from our party last year!
and then the party really began!
we have an awesome toddler area at our pool.
we visit the pool every weekend if not more often so asher is a pro climbing up and down and going down the slide on his own...but daddy rode down with him on his birthday and you can see the excitement in his eyes in this photo.
ella was ready to go swimming. she is a fish in the deep end!
asher manning the "water gun"
tahli checking out the pool scene
barrie and lila getting ready to hit the water
amelia came flying down the slide
leah and her daddy testing out the cold water
fun fun times were had by all
and lots of laughing...
watching over the little pool monkey.... yes i am 9 months pregnant and this bathing suit hides it. got to love it!
the cardenas family....our nextdoor neighbors we adore, minus corola
laura was enjoying holding baby harper who was only 4 weeks old!
jen and jason enjoying all the little monkey's running around poolside
more baby loving from bari
papu, aunt janet and poppy chilling outside
and now its time to eat after all that hard work playing outside
yummy jacob "shag do" hirsch.
stella was loving her lunch!
nana was really enjoying some sweet time with baby emery. she is gearing up for baby 2!
asher's girl frida....
someone loves to be silly with jen
the smith family. malaya is in school with asher
after all the kids and parents devoured the food we moved on to the desserts.
i made these starfish smores three months prior to the party and froze them.
i actually had planned on it being a trial run but when i realized how hard they were to make i said... uhhh ill freeze them and if they defrost ok, great, if not ill trash. they are HOMEMADE marshmallows, cut into star shapes, dipped in dark ghiradelli chocolate and sprinkled with finely grinded graham cracker crumbs... and thank goodness they defrosted really well and tasted phenomenal.
softa had won a cake made by Tizzerts at an auction so she volunteered to get the cake. this cake was amazing... not only was it adorable and huge, but it tasted delicious....
nana and poppy's cuteness
aunt janet and cousin brittan came in for the weekends festivities. such a special treat to have them there with us celebrating all weekend. we could not have pulled everything off without their help. they stayed up with me till 11:30 pm the night before the party setting up.
little hirsch. seriously i could eat him up. yummy.
the small-schwartz clan!
me and my big boy
so stinking silly
enough with the photos mom... yes asher i know, but i need to get a photo of you in your cute birthday shirt!
we left the chalk out so the kids could play outside during the down time
the octopus hotdogs for the kids....
and then it was time to sing happy birthday and blow out the candles.
some of the kids were ready to gather round...
he was a pro and got them all out on the first try with no help!
nana and poppy bought him a "cars" bike which he was obsessed with and drove around the clubhouse like a wild man. dont worry we bought him a nutcase helmet the next day. he now really needs knee pads too...
papu and softa posing with asher in the two seconds we could get him to stop riding his bike in circles
nana and poppy with the birthday boy
uncle jay and asher man
family....
and most importantly mommy and daddy with their big/little boy!
happy birthday mr. asher. the best three years we could ever ask for.
three whole years. amazing. so grown up. we are so very proud of all of your accomplishments this year. you are still such a laid back, easy going, loving child. how did we get so lucky to be your parents?
