Welcome to Eli's State Fair!
Our little buddy turned FOUR in April and we celebrated by throwing him a
Texas State Fair Themed birthday party.
so the theme choice was easy!
The hard part was I could't find much on Pinterest so we had to get creative.
First, I started with picking red, blue and touches of yellow for the color pallet.
I wanted the feel to be vintage and of course I went with my go to pattern of gingham.
I already owned lots of burlap and wooden decor so I mixed those in as well.
Sign in table:
I wasn't actually planning to do a sign in table until 2 nights before the party.
Last minute I thought of the idea of displaying photos of the birthday boy on a wooden pallet.
Some of our neighborhood is still under construction so I cruised through that area and found a pallet with the least amount of ants and loaded that sucker into the back of my car.
My kids thought I was insane and we had to drive at the pace of a turtle home because I couldn't close the trunk but this may be my favorite part of the party decor!
I pulled out old pictures and printed some of the new ones.
I stapled twine that we already had and then used clothes pins to attach the pics.
It was super inexpensive but held so many precious memories!
I ordered the gingham table cloths off amazon and rented the cute burlap skirts from a friend in my neighborhood, Caydi.
I used frames from around the house to display Eli's four year bluebonnet pictures.
A few months back I met local artist Liana Yarckin at an event I was doing with my store,
Patina + Peonies.
She fell in love with our Bla Bla dolls and I fell in love with her art work featuring the
Texas State Fair!!!
We traded goods and I framed her art work to display for Eli's party!
For flower arrangements I took coffee cans and wrapped them in "Admit One" red tickets and used old coke bottles, and mis-matched mason jars and milk jars we had around the house.
I hot glued red gingham ribbon and blue prize ribbons to everything to bring the whole look together.
Every year I have bought wooden letters from Hobby Lobby and mod podged scrap book paper to display Eli's name. It's inexpensive and a cute way to highlight the birthday boy!
Lastly, I rummaged through the books we had upstairs and picked a Texas themed book with the least amount of ripped pages! (I think this one was technically a Valentine's Day book but it never actually said Valentine's day so I went with it! Ha!)
Dessert Table:
Next, I started working on the dessert table!
I have always wanted to do pipe and draping for a backdrop but never wanted to fork over the money.
So I thought outside the box and found the pipe on Amazon for $30 ( I think it's technically a photographers backdrop pipe?) and bought a burlap table cloth for $17 saving hundreds of dollars on a true draping!
I didn't love the clips up top so I covered them with those little fans I found at Walmart for $0.88 per package.
I made the bunting myself by purchasing the diamond burlap banner and cutting out the fabric and using liquid stick to attach the fabric. I will say next time I will just spend the $25 and order this off Etsy because it took entirely too long!
I bought the crates from Target in the crafting section and the red cake stands
from the dollar section at Target.
For the cookie dessert stands, I hot glued blue ribbons to stands I got off the dollar aisle at target!
I already had the wood stumps, hay bales and the crates for the cake pops.
I just added some gingham ribbon.
The banner and pie tags were made by Jen Lyons owner of Filled with Joy.
The balloon towers might have been one of my favorite parts and after getting a few quotes (and some were entirely outrageous might I add!!!) we went with a sweet local couple from RENYNRYKE Creations.
Desserts:
When I started thinking fair themed desserts I knew we needed live cotton candy + mini pies.
I saw on Pinterest a ferris wheel pie/ cupcake holder and
knew I wanted that to be the center of the table.
Since, I had a center piece in place I went with 2 smaller cakes and was able to choose 2 really cute toppers. Eli said one of his favorite things of the whole party was his pig cake!
We then decided to do animal themed cake pops to match the petting zoo out front and had to get creative with the Texas State Fair themed cookies!
We did Big Tex's hat + boots, the prize winning Pig, Blue Ribbons, the number 4 with a fletchers corn dog, the ferris wheel, and a cute plaque displaying Eli's name to make it extra personal!
Cake: Better Batter Cakes (Mary lives in my neighborhood!)
Cookies, Pies, Cake pops: Sweets on a Stick
Cotton Candy: Fluff and Stuff
Food:
Next, I called our trusty friend, Chef David, and asked him to make turkey legs, roasted corn, corndogs, fruit, veggies, and pop corn.
We already had the terra cotta pots from Eli's second birthday and I bought the fruit baskets off Amazon.
Drink Table:
For the cups I reused the Starbucks Frap bottles from Eli's second birthday (Mitch had to drink all that coffee so I'm glad we have gotten to use them some!) and added water bottle labels to them.
Every year I have done a custom cup for both kiddos but this year I saw these cute Big Tex hat look alike on Oriental Trading Company and went with those!!
Entertainment:
This was the best part of the entire party!
When we decided on the fair theme I knew I wanted cute games, Big Tex,
a petting zoo and some sort of show.
We called up our pal, Paul, and he sent over Big Tex but we ran into a small problem...
All the jugglers, clowns, performers were all attending the last ever Ringling Bros Circus show since they had all worked for the company in the past.
Paul suggested Mikey the Monkey as a fun alternative and decided that would be fun!
For the games we decided on the Match the Lucky Ducks, Ring Toss and Lasso the Horse.
We drank down some cokes, used a bucket we already owned and a glow bracelet from the prize section for the ring toss!
I ordered the Matching Ducks games off Amazon and Mitch built the horse from wood we already had. I added the bandana and luckily found the hoola hoop super last minute in our playroom closet.
I ordered the cardboard barn and custom Fair Stand and those ended up being some of my favorite items of the party!
Favor:
I ordered all the little prizes off Amazon and Eli was ecstatic with all the little treasures! Ha!
Overall, this ended up being super last minute and kinda thrown together but has to be my favorite party so far. The theme was so cute and Eli had the time of his life!!!
*Photography: Arielle Humphries Photography*
Eli,
You will always hold such a special place in my heart as you were the one who made me a mama.
We learned so much alongside one another.
You came into the world a fierce little determined thing and I know without a doubt that will always be one of your song suits.
You were joy in the hardest time of my life and peace when I needed it the most.
You are silly, hysterical, love jokes, and watching movies.
You are strength, kindness and have a heart of gold.
You shower your mama in snuggles, kisses and words of affirmation.
You and your sister truly are the lights of my life.
The word love doesn't seem to do justice to what I feel in my heart for you.
Baby boy, YOU are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on it's stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven. (Matt 5:14-16)
Eli, your light is contagious.
You have such a calling on your life and I know God will use you for great and mighty things.
You are the ANSWER to prayer.
You are UNIQUE and there will never be anyone on earth that can fulfill what God has placed you on earth to do.
Proud of you always,
Mommy
