Monday was my husband's 30th birthday. I wanted to throw him a fun party, but struggled with a theme. The only ideas I saw online were sports, gambling or drinking themed parties. He is not into any of those things, so those options were out. Also, he already did an 80's party for my 30th last year. He's a techie sort of a guy, but I already did an iPhone themed party last year. Finally, I saw this party on Hostess with the Mostess, and I knew I had my theme.
It was easy and fun to decorate. The bowling pins above are from a play bowling set of the boys. I went with a lime green and black color scheme.
I made cupcakes with boxed cake mix and topped them with my homemade buttercream frosting dyed with Wilton's Leaf Green. I found little finger bowling sets on clearance at Wal-Mart for $.50 each, so I used the pins and bowling balls as cupcake toppers.
Phillip requested my Pumpkin Spice Cake with homemade Cream Cheese Frosting. The cake recipe is from The Cake Mix Doctor. It's amazing! I served his cake on our family birthday plate that I painted at a Pottery Studio a few years back. I made it for Buddy's first birthday, and now all of our birthday cakes are served on it each year. Just a fun little tradition!
For our menu, I served bowling alley food. I ordered pizzas and Phillip's mom made nachos and cheese. And a friend of our's made his amazing Buffalo Chicken Dip. Amazing! I made a fun little "menu" to put in the kitchen.
The biggest hit of the night were definitely the "Mii" name tags we made for everybody. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it.
I made a "Mii" character for each person on this website. For each one I hit "print screen" and saved them as individual images. Then Phillip removed the backgrounds on Photoshop. He made a name badge template (email me for a copy) and added each picture and name (using this font). Then he printed them on cardstock and we cut them out. After a quick trip to The School Box to have them laminated, I cut them out again, punched holes and strung them using Rexlace. We displayed them across the fence that people walk by to get to our door. I put a little sign on the door reminding people to grab their name tag in case they didn't notice them.
(In case you think I am a bad wife for letting my husband help me make the name tags for his own party, he wanted to help me. He knew he could make them much cooler than I could with his mad Photoshop skills. )
He later told me that it was the best birthday party he ever had. I am so glad. He's an awesome guy and I wanted him to have an awesome party!
I love you Phillip!
Always,
Amanda
