Charlie's Shoe Party

 

 Charlie's Birthday Party was almost a month ago.   I've been frustrated with Blogger - trying to upload photos.   Anyway, I'll keep the words to a minimum since there are a ridiculous amount of pictures.
We had a wonderful time celebrating the big TWO! About 3 weeks before, I still hadn't picked a "theme."   The first thing that popped into my head was food.   Ha.   He loves to eat.    But, second best, ... shoes.   He's crazy about them.   My shoes, his shoes, new shoes, old shoes ... So, a "shoe" theme it was.
I love finding inspiration on the internet, but as it turns out there aren't many shoe parties to be found.   So, I had to get a little creative and come up with some original ideas.

Couldn't find a "shoe" invitation, so ordered a simple one with a picture of him wearing Colin's shoes.

We had plenty of pictures to pick from.

Sent them out like a week before the party.

Everything was  a little last minute.

I try to decorate letters for the boys each party - the layers of paint are getting a little thick : )

Re-used a paper chain and some pinwheels from Jack's carnival party when  he turned four.


 Turns out I had a "shoe" shape on one of my cricut cartridges.  Thank you Jackson for noticing it!





Sweets.

Chocolate on chocolate cupcakes.

Made lots of little shoes with a candy mold, found on amazon.

Used shoe laces in place of ribbon for a banner.

Here's Charlie checking out his shirt.   Found the sneaker fabric on spoonflower.

 

Was hoping he could wear these shoes, but he outgrew them before the party! 

So, just used them for decoration.

Not sure how sanitary it is to put worn shoes next to the chocolates, but oh well.   

I don't think anyone was harmed.

Fudge.  Yum.

My mom and I made it.   First batch was a FAIL.

It's called NO FAIL fudge.  

We managed to fail.

: )

Used little cricut cut outs of shoes attached to toothpicks.

A whole lot of shoe cookies.

Was thinking about making them more detailed, but as with everything else .. just not enough time.
The little jars behind the cookies were labeled "sneakers" (snickers),  "shoe laces" (sour laces), and "chocolate shoes" (little foil covered chocolate shoes I found online.



I labeled the food using pages from a little notepad I bought on Etsy.

Colin made all the "real" food.  
Pulled Pork sandwiches, Cole Slaw, Deviled Eggs...

Love this boy.

No one was particularly smiley.   But they are all three in the shot, so it counts.

Activities included decorating shoes.

The wind and lack of sticky on the foam shapes tried to deter us, but we made it work.   

We borrowed the bounce house from the Koonces.

Played an exciting game of "Pin the Shoe on the foot"

We also had horse-shoes set up to play. 

No picture.

We played a rousing game of shoe shuffle.   Tried to put the kids into two teams and have a relay.

We ended up just letting them run whenever and find their shoes in the pile, put them on, and run back.

There wasn't a whole lot of structure.  

But I think they had fun.

Charlie seemed confused. 

And of course we had a giant shoe pinata made from a little shop near Colin's work.  

They put Charlie's name in the back where the Ked's logo would be.

Onlookers Cooper and Emma.

Loved Emma's makeup...she had a dance recital earlier in the day.

 

 Ann, the "Pinata Queen," broke it!

 Too windy for candles, but we just pretended.

 Sweet boys.

Favors:

Shoestring potatoes (which were a hit with all the kids ... I had forgotten how good they are!)

Gummy flip-flops 

And a Croc keychain.

Used the same sneaker memo pad pages for the label and wrote,

"Thank Shoe for coming!"

 I also made a cd with some incredible tunes.  ha.

Lots of songs about shoes, boots, etc. like

"Boot Scootin' Boogie," "Boogie Shoes," and "These Boots are made for Walking."

So we had that playing during the party, and sent all the kids home with a copy.

Sure all the parents are loving here the 13 songs over and over in the car like we are!

We had a great time. 

So thankful for all of our friends and family that were able to join us and help with all the details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't believe it's been two years since we brought Charlie home from the hospital.   Except we didn't 

actually take him home, because our AC was broken.   So we took him to a hotel : )

Happy, happy birthday Charlie!