Channing is obsessed with kittens, much to our poor cat’s dismay. Sometimes I think she would BE a cat if she could. So when it came time to pick a theme for her birthday party, call she wanted was cats. All cats. If you’ve been following along for any amount of time you know I’m not a crafty or DIY mom at all, but sometimes I give it the old college try and come up with something cute.
This party was 100% inspired by Oriental Trading and their blog post about creating the purrrfect kitten birthday party. I added my spin where I could because again, I’m not that DIY gifted. We held the party at The Great Escape Club in Atwater Village and it was a great space for the kids to run around. They have an indoor/outdoor play area, a climbing structure, a home themed play area and a bounce house. It was great because the kids had lots of options to play while waiting for the cake!
Everything you see here was made by me! If you look closely you can see it’s very simple but effective. The table cloth, cups, candy, letters, buckets, cat stand, plates, napkins, blowers, yarn sticks and polka dot paper were all from Oriental Trading.
For the cat face, I bought a pink piece of poster board from Michael’s and cut a circle, then cut out cat ears from the leftovers. Then taped them on the back and drew on a cat face. Took me about 5 minutes!
These metal buckets were the perfect touch to set the tone. I bought plain metal buckets from Oriental Trading, then paint from Michaels that matched the poster board. I primed the buckets first, then added two coats of pink spray paint and voila! Perfect shade of pink! I just drew on the face and taped on the ears from leftover posterboard. I made a few extra to put crayons, markers and other party supplies in for the craft table. And they’re reusable! The buckets are now in Chan’s playroom where she can keep her trinkets or craft items. I filled the bucket with pink easter basket stuffing and topped it off with blue gum balls. I bought wooden rods from Michael’s and used a styrofoam ball to make the perfect ball shape for the yarn.
These letters might be my favorite piece! They come in plain white from Oriental Trading and can easily be painted to match your colors. They were also the most expensive part of the decor at $19 each so you might shop around to see if you can find a cheaper option. I just liked them because I could paint them. And they light up! I also used the kitty cat cups and filled them with pink Sixlets and put a cupcake on top of each one. The kids went crazy for these sugar bombs! But I’m sure the parents hated me LOL
Can we talk about how cute this cake is? I am obsessed! This was gifted to us from Cold Stone Creamery and made just for Channing. They can make custom ice cream cakes, ice cream sandwhiches and more. It was filled with Chan’s favorite ice cream, mint chocolate chip. Honestly I thought her little heart was going to burst. Kittens and ice cream are all she talks about and to have them both in one package was incredible. Made this mama so happy!
I’m a nerd and thought it would be fun to have some “cat facts” to engage the kids as well. And also so maybe the parents would forgive me for giving their babies so much sugar. We already had the chalkboard and I had Chris just write some facts. He was very worried that everyone would judge his handwriting but I think he did a great job.
I had lots of little touches like this around the party. I bought some cat figurines from Michael’s and mini play dough to keep the kids busy. Chan put her cat in the grass so he could “relax.”
Channing and her BFF Penna Ziering!
I used extra sheet paper to make a “photo wall”. There are balloons at the top and if I’d had more time I would have had more photo props and balloons. But I ran out of time. I don’t think these cuties notice though.
Chan getting a cat makeover from Jen at Blushi Beauty.
We also had cat “makeovers” from Blushi Beauty. Jen is an incredible make up artist who lent her talents to my party but wanted to make sure everyone knows, she doesn’t do kids parties! This was a special deal from our Aunt Jenny and the kids loved it!
We skipped the usual gift bags filled with plastic toys that the kids break or lose within minutes of the party and opted for Pete the Cat books. Each guest got to take home a wad of sweets and a Pete the Cat book for first time readers. I was hoping this would also make up for the all the sugar we gave the kids and the parents really seemed to appreciate it, especially because we are all knee-deep in learning to read.
A few other little touches we added were cat tattoos from Ducky Street Tattoos, and balloons with cat faces drawn on. Overall it was sweet party and just purrrfect for my cat loving kid.
