Tiny T Turns Two: A Mini-Golf Party

I'm going to be honest, I love entertaining.  It really doesn't matter what the occasion is, I have so much fun bringing people together and having a good time.  From casual to formal, I just think it is a wonderful way to create memories and foster relationships.  As we have gotten older, my parties have been a thread that holds our group of friends together as our lives pull us apart and demand more of our time.

Right now, amongst our friends, my older son Townes is really the first kid so his first birthday party last year was quite an exciting event.  But really, a one-year old's party is more for the adults than the kid, because they don't really have a concept of whats happening and get pretty over stimulated after about an hour. 

So when his second birthday was coming up, I was really excited to choose a theme that he was going to enjoy and to have an activity that he could participate in and to see his friends play with him.  At the time that I started thinking about what to do for his party, he was really into golf.  Like weirdly, very into golf.  He would watch the golf channel with his grandparents and squeal with excitement over the "ball ball ball!" and ran around the house putting anything in sight with his plastic clubs (courtesy of his grandmother).  Unfortunately, every once and while he tried to putt the baby, but other than that, his golf obsession was pretty adorable and provided me with a great direction for his party.

When I hopped on Pinterest to start browsing for some inspiration, I came across a funny reality that apparently, toddlers aren't often into golf.  Almost all the golf parties I had seen were old dude's retirement parties; I get it, but kids like golf too!  So as I lamented my problem to my husband, he was like, why can't we just take him to Putt Putt and be done with it.

I understand his request; we have an awesome Putt Putt course five minutes away that is BYOB (Peter Pan's Putt Putt, its practically an institution here, check it out if you visit Austin).  However, I thought that would be a huge hassle with toddlers running around and with a two-and-a-half-second attention span.  But he was on to something with mini golf.

After thinking on it, and tossing ideas around with Chanel, we decided to turn our backyard into a mini golf course and have a country club baby brunch at home for Townes. 

My party process is pretty much the same every time: I start with the idea, then it moves to the invitation.  The invitation narrows in my color scheme and theme and sets the tone for the party.  Once those are in the mail, I nail down the activity and what that will entail.  Next, I create a menu based on the theme.  Lastly, the decor.

Since I had my idea: mini golf, choosing the invitations was next.  My go-to site for invitations and cards (anything paper) is Minted.  Their paper quality is fantastic and the designs are wonderful - it is a co-op of indie designers from all over the country so there is a lot of variety. 

The invitations

For Townes' party I chose these adorable Party Hat Invitations and customized the back with a more personalized message that instructed everyone to participate by wearing a fun golf-inspired outfit (if they wanted to).  To make the invitation suite more personal, I ditch the plain envelopes that come with the invites and head to Paper Source for a custom color and envelope liners I cut from their paper myself.  For this these I chose the A7 size envelopes in Royal Blue and a hand painted orange and gold argyle paper for the liner.  (I have their envelope templates and use a cutting board, Exacto knives and double sided tape to cute and fasten the liners into the envelopes).

I also try to embellish the envelopes to look like they are part of the invitation: I use similar or the same fonts to those on the invitation to address the envelopes (in this case printed on labels) and then use something to add a little pop (in this case, adorable gold glitter monogram stickers).

The activity

I had to enlist some of Aaron's creativity for the main event on this party.  I asked him to create a mini golf course appropriate for toddlers, but also entertaining for adults, and for a reasonable amount of money.  He really succeeded!  He used sheets of plywood, spray painted them green, cut a hole in each one (in various places), and then created bumpers using foam pipe insulation spray painted white (you could also use pool noodles).  In one afternoon we had nine holes of tiny golf!

The number flags I made from wooden dowels, affixed with foam sheets cut into triangles with contrasting circles and numbers (I stenciled and then cut them out).  I bought a whole package of foam sheets from Michael's. 

The course was finished out with mini-golf pencils, score cards, balls and plastic golf sets the kids got to take home as favors that I found at Walmart for 5 dollars a piece.

The other activity I provided for kiddos to do (and take home as a favor - I do NOT do goodie bags) was a custom foam visor to wear on the course.  When they walked in the dining room table was set with visors that I had written their names on, along with a bucket of foam embellishments for some quick decoration.

The menu & decor

For this party we went pretty simple with the menu.  There were gonna be lots of little kiddos who didn't have the best eating skills yet so I didn't want to overwhelm anyone with cutting things and making a mess of food trying to get kids to eat.  We made queso in the crock pot, had a bowl of chips, a bowl of pretzels, guacamole, fruit salad, a veggie plate and a main course of Tee Sandwiches (I can't resist a good pun).  The sandwiches were made on simple thin-cut white bread and a variety of fillings: cucumber and cream cheese, pimento cheese, chicken salad, and egg salad.  We made simple vanillaand chocolate cupcakes, topped with a lawn of green vanilla buttercream, a Sixlet for a golf ball, and flags made from tooth picks and washi tape.

I printed up some label cards for the food that went along with the color scheme and font family, stuck them into my trusty wine cork place card holders and the table was just about done.  I decorated the food tables and the craft area with green crinkle cut paper shreds (grass) and orange and white golf tees (a giant bag from Walmart).  The floral arrangements were orange and yellow daisies in mason jars with golf tees in the bottom for just a little more color.  Then the tables were set and we were ready to party!

Baby Chalkboard Updates: Round 1

I started this tradition two years ago when my first son, Townes, was born.  We were living in our tiny house back then (sometimes I really miss it) and I had painted a half wall in his nursery with chalkboard paint.  Note: I LOVE chalkboard paint.

I had gotten a bunch of Pinspiration from others who had done similar things and this was my version of the chalkboard updates.  I'm not the best about sending photos or taking videos, so posting these on Facebook for my friends and family was an awesome way to share his milestones.  Plus, I knew there was no way I was actually going to fill out his baby book.

Being that I only had one baby and this was a fun creative outlet, I did monthly milestones and holidays.  I changed up the regular pattern on his birthday when I had everyone who attended his birthday party sign his chalkboard, I thought that would make for a special memory (and helped with thank you notes haha). You can also see a progression of my chalk art, approach, and photo editing as time went on.  Sometimes I look back at the early ones and wish I could re-do them, but perfection is pointless. 

One thing I am happy I did was choosing a particular item to photograph him with that was a favorite at the time.  Babies jump from one favorite thing to another so quickly its easy to forget what they were into or a milestone like using their first sippy cup.  Putting those things in the pictures with him will always serve as a reminder of what he loved, even if it was fleeting.

You also might notice that sometime in the summer, the floor magically changes colors.  Not magic.  What happened was, we decided to remodel our tiny 780 sq ft. bungalow into a 2400 sq ft. dream home.  However, part of the collateral damage was Townes' actual wall in his first bedroom (which became Aaron's office). Also, we had to move out of our house and live in a rental for almost a year, and I had to figure out a solution to my continuity issue.

I couldn't very well paint a wall in the rental house with chalkboard paint, landlords tend to frown upon those types of things.  So I did the only logical thing.  I measured the wall exactly, took a picture of the baseboard molding and headed out to Home Depot.  I'm pretty sure every guy there thought I had lost my mind, but I asked that they cut me a piece of MDF to the exact size, and found matching baseboard and had them cut that for me too. 

Back at home, I painted my new "wall" with two coats of Rust-Oleum Liquid Chalkboard Paint (its better than the spray can) and then attached the baseboard to the bottom with wood glue.  All I had to do now was lean it on the wall and plop his Pottery Barn Baby Chair in front of it and no one would know the difference (unless they compared the stain color on the hardwood floors). 

Here are some of the pre-edit photos so you can get an idea of what a difference good photo editing can do.  Nowadays I use my favorite app on my phone, Aviary, but at the time I was just using what tools were available to me in iPhoto.  When taking the photo here are a few tips to make sure they turn out great.

• Keep it straight and level: I used to place my camera on an board book on an ottoman away from Townes and used a remote to shoot the photos (I used this really simple one from Precision). You want the camera to be straight on to your little ones face, make sure you aren't shooting from higher up; that may mean your camera only needs to be 18 inches off the ground, so use a little tripod or a stool. Before even bringing your baby in, you can make sure the camera is set to capture the whole space you need and that the floor is straight and level in the photo, this will give you the most to work with when cropping later.  It will also keep the camera steady and makes the photos look more consistent month to month.
• Shoot, shoot, shoot: Set your camera to a rapid shooting setting.  This will allow you to just keep clicking the shutter button on your remote and gives you the most options to choose from (see photo to the right).  Make sure your camera is on auto-focus so they aren't blurry (though if your kiddo is making crazy moves that can't be helped) and it will focus before shooting.
• Focus on your baby: Don't worry about trying to get a perfect picture.  Once your camera is set, bring in your baby and don't worry about the camera.  Kids will give you laughs and giggles if you just set them where you need them and keep eye contact with them and make funny faces, play their favorite songs, etc.  If you try to goad them into saying cheese or looking at the camera you may both end up frustrated.  Stay out of the frame, but just worry about your little one, I promise you will have a photo you love.
• Edit: Once you have your photos, pick the one you feel makes you the happiest.  The one that embodies your kiddo at the time. Then let the magic of digital editing take it to the next level.  Crop it to the same size every month, and then adjust your brightness, color, saturation and tint, or add a filter - the more your experiment with your editing tools the better you will get and you will find what you like. Almost every photo editor should have a "straighten" or "align" option - make sure your baseboard or floor is level to the bottom of your photo!  I was even able to edit out the power outlet on the wall with the "blemish" tool.