Birthday Party at McDonalds and a few DIYs

Hello everyone. This is such a delayed post! I am sharing details of my son's 2nd birthday celebrations which was in July 2016. 

We planned the Birthday party at McDonalds and availed their Ronald McDonald Birthday Party Package. Below I am sharing a few DIY projects and the cake that we ordered to match the theme.

A. First DIY - Photo Booth Frame

1. For this project I took a large cardboard box and cut a frame out of it.

2. Then I covered the frame with black chart paper.

3. I bought this readymade HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner from a local party supplies store and cut-off the bits and brads that held the alphabets together, thus separating all the alphabets.

4. I adhered the letters on the top and bottom part of the frame, as in pic below.

5. I also drew the number 2 with red card stock and added it onto the frame. 

6. I added the smiley on the left, which was a part of the birthday banner.

7. The 'Ronald and the gang' images are from the birthday invitation that were given as part of the party package.

8. Lastly I added my son's name with the chipboard letters that I had in my stash. The alphabets were plain white, so I colored them to match the rest of the frame.

The final frame

B. Second DIY - Photo props

1. I made the photo props from the party hats that are given as part of the birthday package by Mc Donald's. Once you sign up for the party package, you are provided with a set of goodies matching the theme that you choose. These include party invitations, hats, table mats, return gifts and hoards of game prizes. 

2. Out of the four characters in the Ronald theme I used up Ronald's cutout in the frame above.

3. I then used the rest of them to make 3 photo props below.

4. Simply cut out the design and stick them on wooden skewers. I also added the 'Ronald and the gang' badge from the party invites.

C. Birthday Cake - In Ronald McDonald theme

I wanted a cake in red and yellow to go with the theme colors. We got one custom made from a home baker.

D. Third DIY - Cake Toppers

1. I made cake toppers from the party invitation cards that were provided to us. 

2. Simply fussy cut the image and stick them on wooden skewers like I did for the photo props.



These are the birthday invitations provided by Mc Donald's. I used a few of them for my DIY projects.

I must say I really liked the party packages that Mc Donald's offers. I have jotted down a few pros for the same...

1. You can choose from an array of available themes like Ronald McDonald, Spongebob, etc.
2. You get matching paraphilia for the party.
3. Standard decor and table set-up. 
4. Party backdrop
5. Mascot appearance as per theme
6. Party host and MC
7. Standard McDo meal packages and custom packages available too
8. You can order their standard cake or get your own
9. They usually have tie-ups with event planners in case you want to setup additional candy tables, etc.
10. They also liaison with some photographers who have various packages and custom photo booth options.
11. The return gifts are nicely packaged in their custom theme boxes.
12. They offer loads of themed goodies as prizes for all the games.

The table set-up....

Mascot appearance....

My son was in love with this mascot and danced so much with him.

If you have queries regarding the DIY's or related to the birthday party at Mc Donald's, please leave a comment below and I shall answer it as soon as possible. 

Thanks a lot for dropping by!!

Rainbow and Chalkboard theme - First Birthday Party

Hi Everyone!! I have been meaning to write this post since a long time and share my experience of planning my son's first birthday party. As a first time parent we want to do our best and make our child's first birthday memorable for them. Though at that age, they don't really know what's going around, but the beautiful memories we create for them, would surely make them cherish it once they grow up. 

When I started thinking of how to celebrate my son's birthday, I got thoroughly confused. Whether to celebrate at home, or at a hotel, how many guests to invite, whom to invite, theme, whether to hire a party planner. And then even the thought of having a quiet celebration with family came to my mind. 

After lot of research on the net, about the theme, ideas, whats and hows, I finally decided to have a grand party, but with only close family and friends in presence. 

I began by shortlisting the theme and then looked for party planners in Mumbai. They had grand packages and most of the packages had half of the stuff I did not require. As a crafter myself, I felt I could manage most of the stuff myself. Also I wanted to do my best for his birthday and began designing the stuff myself.

The main criteria for selecting the theme was the ease with which I could find the craft supplies as I was at my mom's place in Pune and I wanted to keep the decor simple, with no big and jazzy backgrounds. That's how I zeroed in on the 'Rainbow and Chalkboard' theme.

After finalising the hotel, I did hire a party planner for the ballon decor, DJ, game host, but rest of the party decor and cake ideas were mine.

Below is a step by step detail of all the stuff I created:

1. The Overall Decor: The balloon pillars and balloon grape hangings were done by the party planners. I gave them the brief as to how I wanted it to be. The cake table was placed at one end of the hall, with the gifts table beside it. On the other side of it was the DJ console. Next to the gifts table was the photo garland that I made.

These two balloon pillars were placed at the entrance of the party hall. On entering the hall, first was the birthday wishes board. The photo booth was set up next to it. On both sides we had two activity counters: can game and tattoo corner. 

2. Center Table: The seating was done in a semi-circular manner. I designed a center table decoration and placed it on each table.

The center table decoration had a balloon on a stick, a 'Neil turns 1' prop and a cloud wand, both created by me. I placed all of these in a styrofoam glass and filled it with sweets.

3. The Cake Table and background banner: I was inspired by this rainbow party decor idea for the overall look of the cake table. I made the banner with 4 black chart papers and alphabet cutouts. 

4. Rainbow theme cake: The cake table had a rainbow theme cake and the flavor was 'Death by Chocolate'. On the cake table we had candy floss, cupcakes, jelly sweets, jelly lollipops, and some rainbow colored mint sweets. I also placed the monogram 'N' and the chalkboard poster on the table.

And since it was our 7th anniversary too on the same day, we ordered another cake which had rainbow layers inside.

5. Photo Garland: This photo garland had photos of my son for all the 12 months of his first year. It now adorns my living room.

6. Photo Booth background and props: This is something I was most excited about and it came out pretty well. A rainbow colored background made using birthday streamers. The clouds on the upper part was a last minute idea. 

I also created a sign board for the Photo Booth area and lots of props in chalkboard theme.

7. Birthday wishes board: I had little time in hand to make a wishing board, so this was a quick fix. We stuck black chart papers on a white board and placed colored post-its for guests to write their messages on. I used a slate and colored chalk to make a sign board for this.

8. Return Gifts and Game prizes: We had limited kids for the party and I planned the gifts accordingly. Ben10 themed, green sling bags for boys and Barbie themed bags for girls. Each bag had a thank you tag on it. The green guft wrapped boxes were game prizes.

The contents of the bag were a fun craft activity box and respective theme stationery set and few sweets.

9. Digital Invitation Cards: I designed the invitation cards myself and mailed them to the guests.

Here again I followed the same color scheme: chalkboard background and a rainbow colored fonts.

10. Center Table Wand: I designed the center table wands, printed and cut them out, and then stuck them onto a stick so that they could be placed in vases for decoration.

11. Thank You Tags: These thank you tags were attached to the return gift bags.

12. Chalkboard Poster: I really wanted to make this poster for Neil and thankfully I found a superb tutorial for the same. Here is the link to the tutorial. You can see the framed version placed on the cake table. (pic above).

13. Monogram N:  I made a 3D monogram with cardboard for the cake table. I will soon share a detailed tutorial for it on my blog.  

14. Khoi bag/Pinata: This was made by the party planner, but I thought of sharing it here since it matched the theme beautifully.

This sums up everything related to the party decor. Hope you like my creations and in case you have any queries please feel free to get in touch with me. I leave you with some pictures from the party.