parties – Casa de Berry

2016, costume, craft, decor, halloween, holiday, october, parties

Our Halloween Bash

October 31, 2016October 31, 2016by casadeberry1 Comment

This is the first time we have a) thrown a Halloween party, and b) co-hosted an event with another couple. Our friends J & H are pretty awesome people — and she knits, like me, so you know she’s cool — and we decided to combine our party lists and have a joint bash at our house.

If you follow me on Instagram you’ve seen several of the details Steve has made, and it was pretty cool to see our decor “in action” during the party.

Now, let us welcome you to our party:

We chose a pretty iconic couple as our costumes:

Our boys were Sans from Undertale and a (not so) terrifying T-Rex:

Our guests ranged from Futurama characters to the villainous Joker, to Luigi and Diet Coke to Khal Drogo and his beloved Khaleesi. We also had Egyptian royalty, Indiana Jones, Nemo, Harry Potter, mad scientists, Frankenstein and his bride, groovy chicks, Miss Scarlet in the library with the rope, the Tardis, Walter Sobchak, Rosie the Riveter, and many other friends who made our party so much fun.

Word has it that the mysterious Lord Stonehouse, ancient owner of our home, made an appearance at midnight, but it remains a rumor.

Steve worked super hard to transform our home and I think he did an amazing job, and H made delicious food for everyone to fill their bellies – thanks to everyone, friends old and new, for coming to our party!

2014, birthdays, boys, craft, february, parties

Aidan’s Skylanders Birthday Party

February 25, 2014March 6, 2014by casadeberry1 Comment

Tomorrow is our oldest’s birthday, he is turning nine and we couldn’t be prouder of what a wonderful boy he is. He requested a Skylanders party, and he asked that it be on his birth month, so we held the party last Sunday. We were lucky to have wonderful weather that day so most of the festivities took place in our backyard.

Games:
We decided to have a couple of games that would appeal to a variety of ages – we chose darts and a ball toss. Steve (of course) created the game boards:

I had purchased a set of decals specifically for the ball toss board, which ended up looking like this:

The darts board:

Set up in the backyard

And with balloons:

Piñata:
Aidan requested villain Kaos as the piñata and Steve obliged:

I helped a bit with the black robe but most of it was Steve’s work.

Cake:
Aidan chose the Skylanders portal of power as his cake design. It was Steve’s first time working with fondant, and he knocked it out of the park with the detailing:

Aside from the cake, we also had sheep and water cupcakes 😀

Kids could earn coins from games and the piñata loot, and then buy various items from “Portal Master Aidan’s Trading Post”:

The items corresponded to the elements in the game, i.e. candy eggs and LifeSavers for Life, gummy worms for Undead, Pop Rocks for Magic, bubbles and whistles for Air, etc.

Kids big and small had a great time and even some grown-ups ended up trying the games later on.

Steve says goodbye to his creation 😀

Our boy had a great time playing with friends and family, and so did we. As tired as we are the day of (I got one hour of sleep the night before) and after, we truly love throwing parties and having people over. Steve did a great job on everything and we were both happy how the party turned out. Of course, we’re planning the next thing already, but we’ll take a couple of days to enjoy the “party afterglow”.

2013, birthdays, blue, boys, kids, parties, yellow

Alex’s 7th birthday party

August 12, 2013by casadeberryLeave a Comment

I’m still going through 400+ pics from our Pacific Northwest adventures, so for now I will share a few pics from our youngest’s birthday party. It was a small, sweet gathering:

The birthday boy requested vanilla cake

AND brownies!

Aidan quality-tested the buttercream and declared it good.

We inherited a pool from some friends so our boys and their friends had a blast playing in the water:

After the party it was time to clean up and get ready for our road trip, which started the very next morning — stay tuned!

2013, birthdays, decor, entertaining, green, husband, parties

Minecraft Party, part 1

February 27, 2013February 27, 2013by casadeberry5 Comments

Minecraft is everywhere. Just about every kid I know plays it, and just about every parent I know knows about it. It’s like Legos, but online, and each block has different properties. So of course, my oldest, a fervent fan of the game, decided he wanted a Minecraft party for his 8th birthday. Being the craft-crazy parents that we are, we happily obliged.

Can you tell I went overboard with the square/block theme?

I totally stole the popcorn baggy idea and creeper background idea from Puerta Bella. The popcorn baggies were a hit, every kid (and some adults) grabbed a baggy each and went on their merry way, eating popcorn. I loved that there were no hands grabbing popcorn from a big bowl, that each person could get their own popcorn. The Red Vines TNT idea was shamelessly stolen from Seaside Interiors, and I used some square candle holders I already had, the kids loved it!

I decided to make mini sandwiches, cut to look like blocks, of course. We had Chicken Pesto, made very easily by mixing cooked chicken and mixing it with some of the pesto I made last week; Peanut Butter and Jelly; and Tuna Salad.

My mother in law baked the yummy cakes and my husband decorated them. We had one creeper and two “dirt blocks”:

Aren’t those candles fun? My husband saw them at the store and grabbed them, I’d never seen them before. The sides of the dirt blocks are a mix of oreos and graham crackers. We also had block candies and starburst to complete the “block food” theme.

On Friday, I’ll tell you all about the awesome piñata my husband made!

2012, birthdays, boys, craft, entertaining, kids, parties

Lego Birthday Party

July 31, 2012August 6, 2012by casadeberry12 Comments

My youngest turns six today. We celebrated on Sunday with a small birthday party in the theme of his choosing — Lego Dinosaurs. I did a simple invite based off the Dino Lego website, using the Legothick font I downloaded for free:

The day was beautiful, a little warm for my (arctic) taste, but my in-laws lent us their canopies and we had a great time chatting in the backyard and watching the kids play.

For the cake, we chose to do a Lego brick cake — actually two, since I made one chocolate and one vanilla cake. My son’s choice was blue frosting on his vanilla cake, so I made the buttercream, too. First time, and I think it tasted pretty good. The chocolate cake was covered in green buttercream. We had liquid food coloring at home so I used that, but it took so much coloring to get the shade I wanted that I think next time I will use gel food coloring. My son saw the blue buttercream and gave it a thumbs up. Then he tasted some and wanted to eat the whole container so I had to refrigerate it for a while ;D

A couple of friends suggested Ding Dongs for the Lego studs on the cake:

Here’s my sweet Alex blowing out the candles:

It worked out perfectly that I made a six-stud brick and he was turning six, I just stuck a candle into each, uh, Ding Dong stud. Man, that sounds bad, huh? lol

For the piñata, my husband made a fabulous, Alex-sized version of one of the Lego Dino wranglers:

Here you can see the “model” on the shoulder:

Clothing details:

It’s alive!

My husband gazes at his creation one last time before the kids go at it!

Alex with his piñata:

After the carnage, my oldest made sure to save the head for our future “trophy room” — seriously, we have saved the heads off a few piñatas and costumes, and I told my husband we should mount them on the wall the way others mount moose and tiger heads 😀

Hope you’ve enjoyed looking through our Lego party – have a great Tuesday!

2012, birthdays, boys, craft, entertaining, husband, kids, parties

Superhero Birthday Party – Masks & Capes

February 28, 2012March 7, 2012by casadeberry13 Comments

Our original plan had been to make fabric masks and capes for the kids so they could be “superheroes” all afternoon — but then my husband decided to shape foam sheets into masks and off he went, making a ton of them in a variety of colors and shapes.

This one was my favorite:

I loved the sparkly rose gold color and the heart shapes!

My son chose this one:

Here he tries on another mask for size:

The kids loved choosing a mask and cape and wore them throughout the party – here are some of them during the piñata gorefest (not really). I made a few capes in different colors, and my son requested his be longer, and I added his initial on the back.

It was fun to see the kids trying to decide which color mask or cape to wear, it was a very important choice ;D

2012, birthdays, craft, husband, parties, past project

Past Project – Piñata Time!

February 24, 2012February 23, 2012by casadeberry6 Comments

Our oldest’s fourth birthday was all about dinosaurs. He knew the names of dozens of dinosaurs, what they ate, how they fought, etc. My husband decided to make a piñata worthy of his firstborn’s obsession.

I think it came out pretty fricking fabulous! It was made out of balloons covered in paper-mache.

Our boy was pretty happy with his piñata:

However, there was one little problem.

My husband had done such a good job ensuring the piñata was sturdy, that no one could break it. The birthday boy’s dainty whack certainly didn’t do the trick ;D

Three rounds later, all the kids were tired, so my husband decided to give it the old coup de grace and end its misery.

There was tons of red confetti inside, along with candy so when the piñata was opened (ha) it would come out like blood. My husband likes to be realistic that way.

We still have the head on our bookcase, along with some costume heads – I said we should mount them like hunting trophies, what do you think?

2012, birthdays, boys, husband, parties, past project

Past Project: Birthday Cakes

February 22, 2012February 19, 2012by casadeberry2 Comments

Around here, it’s the man’s job to do birthday cakes. That’s right, my husband has created some fabulous cakes for our boys’ parties. It must be genetic because his mom was in charge of cakes for the first couple of years, but then as our boys’ preferences have evolved, my husband decided he’d give cake decorating a try. His mom still bakes them — they’re so good! — and my husband plans out the logistics of transforming a plain cake into a dinosaur, Godzilla, or whatever the boys are into.

Let me show you some of their talented creations:

This was the cake for my youngest’s first birthday. It was a toga party, so my mother-in-law make a cool cake with lettering to match the invitation.

When my oldest turned 3, he was totally into elephants and Go, Diego, Go! So gran made him an elephant cake and I found a Diego candle topper:

He loved it, but when people started singing he said it was too loud and dove under the table. Gran and I dove under, too, so he could blow out his candles and I could take pictures.

Next year, it was all about dinosaurs:

This was my husband’s first cake – seriously. He based his creation on a video from Betty Crocker.

For our youngest’s luau party, he decorated this huge tiki cake:

Last year, my oldest was obsessed with Godzilla, so dad obliged and made him a super awesome cake.

My boys totally appreciate what Daddy makes for them, and I sure appreciate having a talented husband and mother-in-law.

Are you the cake maker in your household?

birthdays, boys, parties, past project

Past project: Cards and party invites

February 20, 2012February 23, 2012by casadeberry4 Comments

Our oldest is having a birthday party soon, so I thought I would share with you some of our past efforts this week – hope you enjoy this post!

Here at Casa de Berry we love to do a lot of our own stuff. We could probably save ourselves a lot of time and (sometimes) stress, but the lure of making our own _____ is usually too strong and we cannot resist.

When we had our boys, we wanted something a little different for their birth announcements. Our first son got the full Lord of the Rings treatment:

This was an insert that went inside a gate fold card, sealed with a elven motif.

Our youngest got the martial-arts poster treatment — we were trying to figure out what to do when all of a sudden I got this shot of him and we just went, “Kung Fu Baby!”

For birthday parties, we’ve gone the same “homemade” route, such as this Harry Potter-inspired invitation for our oldest’s first birthday:

He was into Thomas by the time his second birthday rolled around so we issued a Boarding Pass for the party:

Our youngest had a toga party for his first birthday:

Then he got a simple Mickey treatment for his third birthday:

For his fourth birthday, we threw a luau-themed party:

Last year, my oldest was obsessed with Godzilla and we themed his birthday party accordingly:

My husband and I usually go back and forth on invitations, Christmas cards, etc. Sometimes I’ll come up with an idea and he will refine it, sometimes I just do the whole thing or he does, but for this upcoming party, I will proudly give him all the credit. He came up with a seriously awesome design and did a fantastic job with it. I can’t wait to unveil it next week!