Ivy's Rock and Roll 4th Birthday

My daughter just had her golden birthday! She turned 4 on October 4th! Despite telling myself last year, that I wouldn't throw a big party this year, I decided you only have one golden birthday and I love any excuse for a good party/get together!

Up until this year, my daughter hasn't really had much of a say or an opinion on what kind of party she wanted, what activities she wanted to have, and who she wanted to be there. This year she was FULL of ideas and we got to have some fun with that and incorporate some of the things she envisioned for herself into the party! She decided that she wanted to have a "rockstar" party a while back and so we took that as our theme and ran with it from there.

First we had to pick the venue, we decided on Beauty Bar Chicago because, for starters, glitter walls! Also, my husband is a partner there and it has plenty of space for us to incorporate some of the things she wanted, and still have plenty of running room for kids and sitting room for adults. I got most of the decor for the party online at Oriental Trading Company. They have just about every theme imaginable even our "rockstar" party so I ordered a bunch of hanging guitars, "rock n roll" center pieces, a blow up boom box and guitar, and mini records to hang everywhere.

Next we had to plan the activities! Ivy and I have been getting our nails done together since practically day 1 so nails were a must, we reached out to the nail tech that regularly does the "martini & manicures" at Beauty Bar and hired her to the nails during the party and she also made mini nail decals with some of Ivy's favorite TV show characters. The kids loved picking their own colors and what "sticker" they wanted displayed on their little nails. So with that, the first little activity was set!

Next we decided if it were going to be a true rockstar party, we needed a hair and make-up station where kids could go and get stage ready! I recruited a friend for this, who happened to have a professional face-painting kit already, and does hair for a living. For the hair station we bought some spray in color and provided some brushes and hair accessories and the make-up station was equipped with glitter, and body paint kit. The kids got to decide what "look" they wanted and the artist would take it from there! This worked out great and believe it or not, the kids stood still and felt like true rockstars after.

After the kids got glammed up, they head over to the DIY Photo Booth, equipped with props. The rockstars pose for a pic and head into the dance room! The Photo Booth was also a fun way for families to loosen up and get a great photo from the day with their little rockers! We didn't hire a professional photographer, instead we used iPhone's and that way parents get to leave with a cool pic on their own phone and we can keep costs down (yay!).

We had finger food and snacks in the main room along with a bar for mom and dad and specialty rockstar (def not the energy kind) drinks for the little ones! We decided to have the bar open since it was a saturday afternoon, no one was drinking in excess and it was a nice feature for the adults at the party.

The dance room was lit with the disco ball, and had a projector displaying images of Ivy and her glorious 4 years of life, along with pictures of her and her friends so they could see themselves projected up on the wall! The kids danced around for a bit then we played musical chairs (to keep in with our music/rockstar theme!) Musical chairs was a hit, and worked perfectly for kids 3 and up, any younger and it gets a bit confusing for them. We also played limbo, and it was more kids just running under a stick, but they were entertained!

After a few games, it was time for the band. We hired a super interactive duo who played for 45 minutes and had the kids come up and sing in the mic and play along on several different instruments they provided. The kids felt like rockstars, and although, the parents might of had a bit of a headache after, I think I can speak for everyone when I say, it was super fun seeing the kids loosen up and "perform" for everyone.

Next up was piñata time! Somehow we rigged this piñata up in the dance room on a bolt that was already in the wall, I don't know how people usually hang pinata's inside?! Now I see why most are thrown over a tree outside. After each kid got to beat this poor piñata a few times, we let the dad's take over and eventually broke this stubborn piñata. Kids loved taking swings at it and we actually managed to keep all the kids behind a certain point, safe from the wrath of the piñata stick.

We ordered a pink guitar cake from Roeser's Bakery in Humboldt park, along with some cookies. Roeser's did a great job on decorating the cake and their prices are very reasonable. We got a cake to feed 35 people and it was $90 dollars.

Goodie bags were given to all the kids and were fairly easy to fill, I ordered a few cute and in theme items from Oriental Trading Company and bought the rest of the stuff from Party City. I didn't put any candy in, I left that up to the parents to fill a candy bag from the candy bar if they wanted to.

So with that the party was over! Felt like I had just thrown a wedding! The kids had a ton of fun, the adults got to talk with each other and have a little break (I hope) and everyone left happy, most of all Ivy.

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