It’s St. Patrick’s Day Week! I am part Irish, though… not a large part, but for some reason that small bit and the fact that I love the color green has put this holiday in a special place in my heart. So today, for the Quote of the Week I selected an Irish Blessing. “May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours wherever you may roam.” And, may you stop by the blog every Monday (or my Instagram) to grab some free downloadable inspiration!
I am (like many of you) hunkering down to do my part in flattening the curve of Coronavirus in the United States. At this time I am so very thankful for my community of friends who have been checking in on me and my family. Friends who have offered to pick up something from the grocery store when they are out so we don’t also need to go out. Friends who have sent engaging materials and resources for our kids who are stuck home while we are working.
This year, though I am not prepping for a St. Patrick’s Day get together, this Irish Blessing seems even more appropriate.
Quote of the Week Downloads: An Irish Blessing
These are free downloads for you to enjoy, share, use. These are not meant for resale. You may use them on your social media platforms or your blogs with credit back to me. I would so appreciate you tagging me @JenniBost on Instagram or Twitter and /AWellCraftedParty on Facebook!
To use:
Click on the desired link below to open the image in your browser. Right click and download to your computer (or hold down and click save to save on your device).
To use the desktop organizers open your computer’s system preferences to use as desktop background. (Mac Instructions or PC Instructions)
To use on Instagram, save the images on your device and then upload to share on Instagram. Please tag @JenniBost to provide credit.
If you are analog like me download the printable PDF To Do List to use this week! Print in full color, fit to print. Or, if you use GoodNotes, download the PDF and import it into your GoodNotes app for a fun new digital planner background. (Tips on how to utilize PDFs on GoodNote.)
I hope you enjoy these new downloads and will join me each week as I share more. May you have a beautiful week and filled with friends, fun, and lots of green!
My four year old was very particular about his party theme this year. This was the first year for him to have a “friend” party inviting neighborhood kids and his classmates. He wanted desperately to combine his two loves… superheroes and unicorns. Done…with joy I might add. I loved this theme!
This is a LONG post… if you don’t have time, but want to get the TLDR version, scroll down to the very bottom for the biggest takeaways!
We had so many kids that we had to have two tables set up. The floor table was set for older kids to enjoy a selection of cereals and treats.
His birthday falls into a really busy time for us. I traveled for work at the end of October and followed it with our annual Halloween party. Then my husband traveled for work the week between the Halloween party and his birthday. It was nuts.
Though life felt super crazy at this time, I really didn’t want his birthday to feel like it was an inconvenience or a second thought. Thankfully, we kept decor to a few installations and I was able to get it together with the help of a VERY good friend who was up with me til midnight blowing up balloons and creating a streamer rainbow.
Unicorn Superhero Birthday Party
Unicorns are incredibly popular right now. So are superheroes. Unicorn superheroes? A tad harder to find! I had fun creating the theme design. The decor, while impactful, was pretty simple in concept: streamers, confetti, and a whole lot of balloons!
I chose to do a balloon floor because what would be more fun for a four year old than a room full of balloons! It served as both a party activity AND decor. Because the balloons were on the floor I didn’t have to use any helium and they lasted for nearly two months. We created balloon garlands out of them after this party and used them for a party a full month later at another location and they still looked pretty great.
Rainbows were an easy way to please all who were involved. I loved the unicorn party supplies from Target.
Unicorn Superhero Birthday Party Decor Supplies
Note: All of the below links are affiliate links. Affiliate links give a small portion of a purchase to me if you purchase anything on this list. It is at no extra cost to you, but it does help support this blog. Thank you for supporting our blog.
Unicorn Straws – Target
Enchanted Forest Snack Plate – Target
Coordinating bowls, spoons, and napkins. Target, it is a one-stop shop!
Balloons – These days I make my own balloon garlands and such and have quite the collection of balloons. Amazon is my go to for balloons and I buy multiple sizes and store what I don’t use for later use. Unless you host often or have a ton of storage, I’d suggest getting a multi-color pack of balloons in a single size for the floor and a balloon garland kit in white for the cloud.
See all the Enchanted Forest party items from Target. Many of these would come together to make the sweetest party!
A view of the space before I added the fruit tray to the coffee table. The balloons were the biggest draw, but I also love the backdrop!
Making the rainbow wall backdrop
I knew I wanted a backdrop that would draw the eye when guests walked into the space. A friend came over and helped me get it up the night before the party so I really got to surprise my kiddo with it as well!
Cut streamers in a variety of colors to the same length at the size you want for your backdrop. Ours was about 7.5 feet tall. Attach to wall using painter’s tape. We chose to just make it multicolored the whole way through, but you could also decide to do it in big chunks of color in the colors/order of colors of the rainbow.
Create balloon garland out of white balloons and hang from ceiling. I used bakers twine and pins to attach it. The balloons were light weight enough that it didn’t take much effort. Try to center the balloons over the space where you have your rainbow streamers to cover up the painter’s tape as much as possible.
Choose your own cereal and donuts for the win!
Superhero Unicorn Birthday Party Food
Knowing I’d have a house full of kids and parents… I wanted to keep food pretty kid-friendly and simple to make. I decided to host a breakfast party!
These egg bites were so easy to make. I bought pre-cooked pastry shells and filled them with an egg mixture. One was vegetarian and the other had ham.
We hosted the party in the morning and served a variety of cereals, donuts, and fruit for the kiddos. I had a couple of varieties of milk (both dairy and non) and some allergy-friendly cereals. For the adults I served a big bowl of boiled eggs (many kids liked these too), egg bites, salad, fruit, and donuts. Drinks for the kids were milks and juices. The adults had mimosas and coffee. The donuts served as the birthday cake as well as a fun piece of decor.
Mimosa bar
Superhero Unicorn Birthday Party Activities
In my mind the story of this party was that the kids would come in as the wonderful unicorns they are and then learn how to be unicorn superheroes in our superhero training. Wrangling 16 kids for structured activities in a small space was a bit overwhelming, but the parents (and their kiddos) were SO amazing and game for anything that it really worked out well.
This is one happy 4 year old. 😀
Kids began the party by playing in the balloons until the majority of everyone was in attendance. We then ate breakfast. After breakfast we moved the plates away and used the table space to create our superhero costumes.
Laser obstacle course as part of unicorn superhero training
I found unicorn horns (affiliate link), superhero masks, and capes (affiliate link) affordably on Amazon. The capes and masks came with stickers that the kids were able to use to decorate their costumes. I tell you… there is nothing cuter than a bunch of excited little unicorn superheroes.
After the craft activity we explained the rules of the superhero training course. We got four parent volunteers to help with this process. It made it even more fun for the kids when they saw their parents participate.
Bad guys getting caught!
Two of the adults were our “bad guys” and they dressed up in black masks and had a bag of “stolen” goodies. I bought little bad guy kits (affiliate link) to make it look more authentic and filled the bags with unicorn party favors (affiliate link). The bad guys were instructed to do all of the activities FIRST so the kids could follow them.
Unicorn Superhero Warm Up: The kids followed my husband down the stairs to our family room where they had to do warm ups for the course. My oldest son led them in a series of easy exercises.
Crawling: The kids then had to crawl through a tunnel (affiliate link- I love these things!) to get to their accuracy training.
Accuracy Training: Two of the adult volunteers put on these outrageously funny unicorn hats (affiliate link) and the kids had to ring the unicorn before passing to the next part of the course.
Laser Obstacle Course: Streamers substituted as lasers for this Entrapment-esque challenge. It worked really well in our wide but long mudroom. I could see it also working in a hallway!
Catch the Bad Guys: The final challenge was to catch the bad guys! The bad guys led the way upstairs again where they sat down for a break. The unicorn superheroes then captured them by tying them to their chairs using streamers. Giggles ensued!
It all ended with the kids getting to get a favor from the robber’s bags. In the end, I feel like this was a super fun party!
I threw on this dress at the last minute because it was so colorful… at the end of the party we realized that I matched!
TLDR: Party Highlights
Breakfast time parties make for easy, kid-friendly foods! Keep it simple… cereal, donuts, and fruit were a total hit. Don’t forget the adults with some coffee and more savory items.
Four year olds don’t care about the fancy decor. Balloons, streamers, and confetti doubled as both party activities and decor.
Get the parents involved in the activities. It will make the kids more likely to participate and everyone will have a good time. Keep their participation super simple.
Putting together your own superhero unicorn party? Shop the supplies above (or from the box below) and help this blogger bring more fun ideas.
Cheers to all the unicorn superheroes out there. May your day be as unique and fun as my four-year-old is! If you liked this party please do me the favor of sharing on your favorite social media site. It really helps me create more content like this.
A splash of paint, a dash of gin, and a gaggle of your favorite friends and you have a recipe for a super fun ladies night in. Host a painting night (also known as a Sip & Paint) with your favorite gal pals and give the gift of a fun evening in and a party favor that’ll decorate their homes! Read on to see my recent Galentine’s Day version of a painting party along with some tips to host your own!
This party certainly doesn’t have to be done as a Valentine’s Day celebration. However, since this party happened to be near the day of hearts and love… I decorated the party space to reflect that. I kept it mostly simple using graphic black, white, and pink elements. Xs and Os and hearts helped move the theme from the painting space to the bar and food space.
How to Host a Painting Party
The supplies for a painting party can be as simple as a painting surface and some acrylic paint. Fingers make great brushes! However, if you want to keep it a bit more clean, paint brushes are a good addition. To keep costs down you can even just grab the essential colors of paint (black, white, red, yellow, and blue) and let guests mix their own combinations.
I knew I’d be hosting more than one of these events, so I picked up some easels, larger boxes of paint ranging colors, prepped canvases, and paint brushes. The below links are to the actual items I got for my painting party and are affiliate links which means I get a small payment if you make a purchase (at no additional cost to you).
I really love the idea of going to one of those Paint and Sip venues with friends. I’ve been several times and always have a good time. However, one of the things I don’t like about it is I’m often left with a piece of art that I probably wouldn’t have chosen to decorate my house with if not for the cost of the party. So, when I host a painting party… I sorta let everyone do their own thing. I love how creative everyone gets!
Not everyone loves to paint like I do and some people majorly underestimate their skill. So, the below tips are how I encourage people to paint.
Stick with abstract. Unless you are great at drawing…abstract is where it is at.
Pick colors that go with your home decor already.
Search for artwork in that color scheme to inspire your painting. For instance, if you decorate in blue and yellow do a Pinterest or Google search for “abstract art blue and yellow” and see what comes up!
Don’t try to copy. Look a the shapes and brush strokes on the art pieces you are drawn to and imitate that, but don’t hold yourself back.
Stop throughout your painting to let paint dry and to step back and see how it is shaping up. If you feel stumped…. turn your artwork on its side or upside down and see if that inspires you.
Don’t be afraid of white space. Seriously… sometimes less is so much more!
The Extras… Food & Drink
I hosted this party during the dinner hour so I wanted to provide some hearty snacks that could substitute as a meal, but was also able to sit out a bit so people could snack throughout the painting process.
Ladies Night Menu:
Romaine Lettuce and Spring Greens Dressed in Vegan Caesar Dressing and gluten free croutons with sides of Parmesan cheese and grilled chicken for those who wished to add them.
A charcuterie platter featuring Trader Joe’s Gormet Deli Selection (3 types of meats), unexpected cheddar, goat cheese stuffed peppers, blue cheese, fontina cheese, apples, strawberries, crackers, and gluten free baguette slices.
A vegetable platter featuring carrots, cucumbers, radishes, cherry tomatoes, hummus, and spinach dip.
A sweets platter with cream puffs, eclairs, macarons (from Trader Joe’s), meringues (from Trader Joe’s), berries, and candies.
Belly Up to the Bar at Ladies Night
I think the beverages are always my favorite part of parties. If you look through my blog you’ll notice that I have more beverage recipes than anything else. They are such a FUN way to give a little something extra to a party. I always make sure there are a selection of fun non-alcoholic beverages at every party including water. For this party I served some cucumber water along with a selection of Bubly sparkling waters and sparkling grapefruit juice. I also had a bar with the makings for martinis and gin & tonics.
We had a fantastic time at this painting party and plan to make crafting/painting parties a regular occurrence after this event. Honestly, I think an event like this would be great for a birthday party or shower as well. Wouldn’t it be awesome to host a painting party baby shower and have the guests paint abstract paintings in the colors of the nursery? Or, perhaps a wedding shower where guests paint paintings for the couple’s home together or for the wedding tables! The ideas are endless.
Have a great painting party!
Would you go to a painting party? Share in the comments what would draw you to a party like this or what else would make it a great event!
I’d love that if this idea inspires you that you share it with me by tagging me on Instagram or Twitter (@JenniBost).
