Kids Birthday Parties

Today at Kelly's Korner, the Show Us Your Life Friday is all about kids birthday parties.  I have to say that I love over the top kids birthday parties.  I have a few sites that I love to look at on a regular basis just to get ideas and see what people can come up with.  Here are just a couple:
Birthday Party Ideas
Amazing Moms
I did a lot more for Taft's first birthday than I should have and pretty much swore that it would not happen again.  At least not until he is big enough to help out a little.  I found a cute theme and TONS of things to make it happen at Oriental Trading.  This is a great place to shop for all the little extras you need for your party.  The prices are great and they ship really fast. 
We went for a Surf Monkey/Luau theme.  His birthday is in June and we have a pool at our house so we were going to make the most of it.  You can read all about it here.  I am not sure that I mentioned in that post that we had flower leis and hibiscus flower hair clips at the door so all the guest could be in theme.  They all came from Oriental Trading also.  All most all of the serving trays came from Dollar Tree and the dollar aisle at Target.  Great places for kids party supplies.
Some of my favorite things were the little things that sometimes get overlooked.  I LOVE the hibiscus food picks that I used to make the tropical fruit tray.  They were perfect.

 I was also pretty proud of the fact that we used little sand buckets to hold the plastic ware at the table.

I even made the cupcakes and had never worked with fondant.  I loved how they came out but I now know why people charge $3 cupcake at a bakery and it is worth it.
The best gift we could have gotten was the fact that my friend and photographer, Casey, took all the photos.  I was so busy and would have never gotten the things she did.  If you live here in Florida, be sure to check her blog out here.
We also had him a Farm themed party in Alabama.  I ordered cupcakes for that one and my favorite little detail were the milking buckets that I found in the Target dollar aisle.  They where perfect for favors.

You can read more about that party here.
For his 2nd birthday, we where very low key, and it was great.  We had cake with just the three of us at home and then Taft and I went to Alabama.  My sister gave him a surprise party along with her little girl Mallory's 3rd birthday.  Kristi and I made the cakes and the kids had a great time.  If you want, you can see more here.

This year Taft will be 3.  It is hard to believe.  I have started planning already.  He will have a little party at his preschool with a Mickey theme.  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is his favorite show.  I plan on "stealing" Kelly's great coloring book favor idea that she used for Harper's party this year.  We plan on taking him to Disney on his birthday.  It's a great perk of living in Florida.  He has never been.  Later in June we plan on having a party at home for all his friends and our "Florida family" with a Toy Story Theme. 
I can't wait to see some of the birthday posts today.  I know that there are very creative girls out there and I hope to get lots of ideas for the future.