After rescheduling twice due to forecasted rain, we were finally able to celebrate my sweet girl’s 4th birthday this past weekend with a Vampirina inspired backyard party. Despite our numerous rescheduling, somehow it still managed to rain on us unexpectedly during the party. It's just another way of God reassuring me that things are always going to go as he destines it to be, not how I want it to be. My husband and I had never done a party for Celine’s birthday before, it's just never really been our thing. On her 1st birthday, we didn’t really do much. She had a small celebration at her daycare and we joined for cake and pictures. I also, did a DIY 1 year old photoshoot of her in my in-law's backyard (Alice in Wonderland, inspired).
For her 2nd birthday, we rented a kids play place that took care of everything for us. I'm talking about not even even decorations nor cake we had to worry about. We just told then what we wanted and they got it done! (*If you're in the Long Island area definitely check out, Sippy Cups Cafe.)
Last year, the entire world was in the middle of the pandemic, so we decided to meet with friends and family at a beautiful sunflower and pumpkin farm. There, we got to get on a hay ride together, do pumpkin picking, and all I had to prepare were individually wrapped snacks and goodie bags for the kids. I also made individually packaged pumpkin spice cupcakes for all our guests. (*You can check out details of that budget & covid friendly birthday party here. Check out the cupcaker recipe here!)
This year for the very first time, we went with the at-home, backyard party idea. I guess having never done this before, we got a little carried away and went as far as renting a bounce house! Now that it’s all over with, I see why we tended to run away from this idea! Despite all the stress and work that came with putting this 4th birthday party together, I am grateful for the simple fact that we were able to do this for her even if just once and that it turned out well. Most importantly, Celine had a great time and enjoyed spending time with her family and friends. I know the saying goes “Never say Never” but, my husband and I promised ourselves we would NEVER put ourselves through that AGAIN! (Funny behind the scenes fact, the day before the party, we had huge double tents up in our backyard. The wind on that day was so strong, it blew over on our dect while I was under and ruined all of the tents!)
On that note, future birthdays will be back to usual in keeping it smooth and simple!
Enjoy the Vampirina inspired birthday decor and ideas below! Everything was mostly DIYed (with inspirations taken from Pinterest) by myself with lots of help from my little sister and my mother.
INVITATION
I used Canva to quickly create this invitation for FREE! What I love about Canva, besides the fact that you can do so much without paying a dime, is the vast variety of templates available to choose from. Not just that, but, if you aren't on your desktop or laptop, you can easily use it from the app on your phone. I find that so convenient when creating invitations because once you are finished creating your design, you can save it to your phone's photos and immediately send it to your guests.
Here's how to personalize this invitation for your own event:
Once you've created a Canva account using an email address, select create a design, select poster (I made it a little bigger so I could fit everything nicely. However, if you are going to be printing these, I would recommend using the actual invitation sized template.). Download the template by entering your email address below. Next simply upload the image onto canva, drag the image template onto your blank page, add your specific information (name, age, date, address, and phone number) using the text tool in the empty spaces. Below I've listed the font names and size for you to get the exact same look.
Name Font: Euphoria Script, size 155
Number Font: Droid Serif, size 443
Date & Location Font: Alegreya SC, size 45
You can also download the PDF document below and customize it directly from your desktop/laptop!
GOODIE BAG THANK YOU TAGS
I created these on Canva as well. I created two different colors to distinguish boys bags from girls bags. I printed them on cardstock, punched holes at the top, and tied it to the goodie bags with a ribbon.
THE DONUT CAKE
Celine is obsessed with donuts so, it should be no surprise that we decided to get her a donut themed cake for her birthday party. Please believe me when I say that this cake was just as delicious as beautiful as it looked! The filling was Dulce De Leche as requested by the little diva. It was hand made by a dear friend of ours who bakes at home and takes private orders. Did I mention she made the donuts, too? Check out more of Cakes by Vanessa !
THE DECOR
All of the items I used for decoration were purchased either from Amazon, Partycity, or Dollar Tree. For a detailed list of everything I purchased for the party, check out my Amazon Storefront.
Dollar tree was definitely my go to first, for everything because you can literally find anything and at a great deal. Especially since most of the items I purchased were things I knew I would only be using this one time and never again. If there was something I couldn't find after going to multiple Dollar Trees near me, I resorted to Amazon and PartyCity.
THE COFFEE BAR
Believe it or not, this was the highlight of the party. After our guests discovered our coffee bar, it was ONN!! The coffee carafe must've been refilled like 10x during the party. Once that one of a kind scent of freshly brewed Bustelo coffee and pumpkin spice filled the air, everyone wanted to grab a cup! The cool and drizzly climate only added to everyone's desire for a hot cup of joe. If there is one thing I would highly reccommend at your next party, it's adding a coffee bar. Trust me it will be a hit!
*The to-go cups were purchased from Home Goods and TJMaxx.
THE BOUNCE HOUSE & TABLES/CHAIRS
We rented a castle bounce house, children table with chairs, and adult table with chairs from Jump and Jam Long Island. Their service was amazing, they were able to work around our rescheduling each and everytime without any hesitations or extra fees. We also added things after our initial order a couple times and they were always so pleasant and happy to add the items to our order. If you are in the Long Island area and looking for a place to rent party items from, I definitely recommend this company. They also have a wide selection of bounce houses in all different sizes to choose from and at a reasonable price.
FUN GAMES
I created two games for the children to play:
1. Ghost Boo-ling
I used plastic bottles and covered them with white paper, drew a ghost face on them, and filled them 1/4 with water to give it some weight. The Vampirina ball the kids used to bowl with I found at Dollar Tree.
2. Zombie Eyeball Toss
The buckets and the eyeballs both, I found at Dollar Tree. I filled the small buckets with some filler string paper in order to avoid the balls from bouncing back out of the buckets.
The kids played with these here and there but, they were honestly more into the bounce house and that's where they spent most of their time. Many of the kids were too young to understand the concepts of the games as well. I would recommend these games for an older age group. I also had a temporary tattoos and arts & crafts area with bat making, coloring pages, and a fall scavenger hunt. The idea was for kids to have other options of entertainment if the they were too scared to go in the bounce house or simply got tired of it (which most did not).
Overall, except for the rain showers, the party turned better than I anticipated. Even so, I think from here on out we'll leave the party doing to the experts and keep it simple...
...Sew This is Life!
