The 3rd Annual Blogiversary PARTY Party

Welcome to the party!  Imagine I'm greeting you at the door in a fabulously enviable outfit, with my hair and make-up salon-fresh.  The party music is going and the place smells like cake with out a speck of dust in sight.  Immediately, your eye is drawn to my amazing decorations and perfectly-styled spread of every delicious and trendy treat!  You are impressed by the effort and attention to detail that went into my party, but amazingly feel instantly relaxed and ready to enjoy yourself.


Well that's what I imagine whenever I throw a party, but the truth is I'm almost always bleary-eyed and make-up-less, setting-up last minute decorations (or usually the cake), and scurrying about like a chicken with my head cut off for quite sometime after my guests have arrived. But since this is a virtual party, lets stick with the first scenario, and I will likewise imagine that you are all the perfect, most gracious guests, because I'm sure in reality, you are!  And I'm so thrilled that you have brought your parties to share!

So here's how it's going to go down:  I'm going to share a little bit of my recent party insanity, then you can link-up all of your parties below.  Our fabulous guest judges and I will pick our top 10 finalists, who will all be featured, and then you can come back and vote on your favorites to win our fabulous prizes! Sounds like a party to me!

So for my contribution to the Party Party, may I present...

Silent Night:  A Ninja-bread Man Party

In the middle of Christmas chaos, I hosted a birthday party at my house for all of the December birthdays on my husband's side of the family.  This included My husband, his brother, my 2 yr.old nephew, and me!  Clearly, there aren't a lot of party themes that are going to work for such a diverse group of honorees, so I thought it was the perfect time to throw a boy-party I'd been dreaming up for a while, that made me giggle whenever I thought about it (and not really worry about it being my birthday, too).

 I was inspired by these hilarious printables from Zakka Life, from the Ninjabread Man cookie cutters from Fred & Friends, and from the time of year to have a ninja/ninjabread man party.  I called it Silent Night because the ninjas are so quiet and so I could "hang" ninja stars in the sky.  (At this point, I'm pretty much killing myself.  I hope you are chuckling, too, and don't think me too irreverent).  

Watch out for ninjas in your cupcakes!

For dinner we had Panda Express take-out.  And yes, I know that ninjas are traditionally Japanese, not Chinese, and I don't even know how authentic Panda is as far as Chinese food goes, but it was Asian-style food, and we didn't have to fix it, so it was great!

My MIL provided the cupcakes and my kids helped hide the little ninja men.  I put oreos, black licorice, and silver gumballs on the cake table to repeat our color scheme.

We hung silver stars from the banister and had some silver and black balloons.  Had this been after Christmas, I probably would have found a way to use my Silhouette to cut a ton of ninja stars and have them  suspended all over the place, as if they were flying through the air.

For fun we decorated ninjabread man cookies.  I waited too long to order my ninjabread man cookie cutters.  They were entirely out of stock, everywhere I tried.  So we just used regular gingerbread man cookie cutters and decorated them to look like ninjas.  I tweaked some of them to look like they were mid-kick.

I made this one to match the Zakka Life printables.  

I got this Wii game, thinking it would be fun for the birthday boys.  It was, but I didn't look to see that it was only a one person game, so probably not the best choice for a party game.  Grandma got the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" movies to keep the kids entertained (and indoctrinated into strange 80s/90s film fare).

They're even cute with colorful candles! 

 And although it is blurry, this is proof that this party was sort of for me.  I got to assist in blowing out the candles.

 So, while not the grandest party I've ever been involved in, it was a fun and unusual way to celebrate December birthdays!

Party Participation:
Your turn!  A quick reminder of the rules.  You may link up any parties that meet the following criteria:

• The Party occurred in 2010 (That way, you wouldn't have linked it up before).
• It was a REAL party (not just a product photoshoot--as much as I love to look at those!  I want to see the real parties with real guests and all of the variables that come with them!).
• You (the submitter) played a major role in the planning and execution of the party (others can have helped, but this needs to be your own work and your own blogpost).
• Most any kind of party is fine (birthday, shower, holiday, etc.)  If your party was for adults only, just make sure your post about it isn't, if you know what I mean.  (I've never had a problem with an entrant in the past, but just to be safe--keep it clean!)
• Your entry will need to display my party party button so I know you're playing and others can come and play too (you can make it smaller if you really need to)!
• Linky Party will stay open for 1 week!  Enter as many parties as you like that meet all of the criteria, and please visit the other participants and let them know you like their parties, as well!

<br /> <a border="0" href="http://meandmyinsanity.blogspot.com/2011/01/3rd-annual-blogiversary-party-party.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc115/irene_jazz/partysquare3.jpg"width="175"/></a><br />
I'm asking the judges to take the following into consideration in choosing their favorites:

• Originality (Theme or use of theme)
• Appearance
• Creative details
• Appropriateness for guest of honor and other guests (age & interests)
• Fun (what did the guests do at the party?)
• Bonus points for resourcefulness (i.e. party magic w/small budgets)

Big thanks to Kim & Chris for judging!  There is more than $200 worth of prizes up for grabs!  Thanks to everyone who donated a prize to make this such an awesome party.  Get the details here!