and, birthday mornings are a big deal at our house. from the minute our kiddos wake up, we celebrate…

peek behind the cake: see that blue blob? kj requested blue crepes and bacon for breakfast!

we called them smurf crepes.

sela woke up early and tip-toed in to our room. she whispered to me

mom, don’t feel bad. i’m not going to snuggle with you this morning because i’m going to wake up kj with birthday snuggles…

right then. my heart melted just a bit.

we spoiled our handsome ten year old with ten gifts.

the first eight were fun, small, practical things – and then the last two were the big surprises:

new baseball catcher’s gear and a new bike! he’s been begging for a bike with gears! look at the shock on his face, it was so fun!!!

today was good. so good i get all weepy when i look at these pictures. kj called the shots all day – we went to his sisters soccer game {and played catch while there}, had lunch at his restaurant of choice, played games with him throughout the afternoon, he went to the baseball park with husband in his new catcher’s gear for practice, at 8pm he requested ice cream at a local ice cream shop, so we obliged. and now he’s still on is computer playing games.  it’s been all about him today.

i don’t have the words to describe how good my sons heart is. it may even drive his daddy a little crazy he’s so sensitive and sweet. but boy oh boy, it melts his momma’s heart. he kisses me, all the time. he tells me, you are so cute mom! you are looking fyne today mom! the sweetest words, all the time. he still leaves the dug-out in the middle of a baseball game to come over and kiss his little sister on the top of her head. he gets all choked up every time he talks to us about anything that affects him emotionally. he is a gentleman. he loves scouts. he loves sports. he likes all games, but especially chess. he’s an avid video-gamer. he will defend what he believes in. he’s ridiculously good with technology and fixes things around the house for me. he’s a very good friend. he adapts easily without complaint to almost every situation. the kid has been in three elementary schools and makes friends instantly. sorry for the ramble – my boy has a heart of gold. and i love every bit of it.

dude. in a nutshell, birthday mornings rock. and my son is ten.

{photos by me, Jane Rhodes}

my son kj requests birthday parties that are true to his interests. when he was two he asked for a choo-choo party, he turned three surrounded by family and his passion for baseball had began, his fourth birthday party was one of my best-planned-parties ever and this is the only picture i have to share! (he loved the movie “cars”, husband built a homemade race track, the guests all made race cars out of potatoes, with pit passes etc. we raced all afternoon – it was so cute – maybe i’ll scan photos in one day since it was pre-blogging), he loved transformers when he was five, in a galaxy far far away KJ turned six years old, when he was seven his obsession with the military began, at eight years old we indulged in his love for video games, last year we celebrated with a neon influence…

and this year, for his tenth birthday, he said he wanted a glow-in-the-dark sports party. he follows in his dad’s sports-loving-ways.  i used a simple invite that was emailed out via evite.  we celebrated with all of the fourth grade boys from his school and because the party was going to be held at an event/kids academy, there wasn’t much else i had to plan {bonus!}. so, i focused on making a couple of details extra special and enjoyed the simpleness of not having to be in charge of anything else!

for the party – the kids were each given a white glow sports tee, glow necklaces, and painted their faces with glow paint. for seventy-five minutes they played glow-in-the-dark dodgeball, football, had a fort-building competition, then had a battle from those forts in the dark, obstacle courses, and much more! to say they had fun would be an understatement.  i couldn’t stop smiling, and i was just observing.

this boy of mine is such an original gem. he is so sweet, incredibly thoughtful, 100% boy, and becoming a young man/gentleman that i am so proud of. definitely a glowing light.

***

party details:

glow-in-the-dark-hat: i used the party hat template linked to here, and colored it with a glow-in-the-dark marker. it was so bright!
for the “10″ sign: used the same marker on felt fabric.
to download & print the “happy birthday” water bottle labels, click here. print on full page labels, and cut.
to download & print the “glowing thank you” labels, click here. print on full page labels, and cut. i used brown wax paper sandwich bags which can be found at whole foods market.
for the cake toppers, i used water balloons, filled them with tiny glow in the dark sticks and when the lights were off – each child had a glow-in-the-dark balloon on their chocolate texas cake!

***

this weekend we will have our traditional family breakfast party, and i’ll sulk in the fact that my kids are growing up.

{all photos and party plans by me, Jane Rhodes. labels designed by lovely lindsay for seejaneblog}

i have always been a fan of ribbons at the end of braids and tied to the tops of ponytails for sporty girls – i think it’s the perfect detail. so, i went to Jo-Ann’s fabric store, and stocked up on my favorite red & black ribbons, the local school colors. i displayed the ribbons as the center piece for dinner, and had scissors to cut the ribbons and coordinating gift bags for the girls to use. each girl chose what ribbons she liked, and everyone took home a bag of ribbons home for this season. it was a total hit. {ha! pun.}

i really like the team dinners tradition. all of the sports teams at our high school have dinner together at different family homes who volunteer to feed the athletes the night before every game. this is totally new to us – does your local high school or high school teenagers do this? it’s a great way to unite the team, and a good way for parents to get to know the kids you are cheering for more personally.

good luck WHS girls softball teams!!!

{pictures by me, Jane Rhodes}

we plan on having a simple {cereal, eggs, and bacon} Easter breakfast, tending to our traditional festivities, and then we are dining out for Easter dinner. because our mornings can be crazy when six of us are all getting ready in our sunday best, i want to make breakfast special, and memorable for the holiday, but easy. a good combination, right?

for some time now i’ve wanted to create a custom placemat that could be used all year long. so, i chose the classic dots game and a leaf design that i can’t get enough of lately! both of these designs could be adapted to any holiday, birthday, or everyday meal use!

i printed the placemats on white and brown kraft paper card stock to get two different looks. i adore both of them, and can’t decide which i like best! the white placemats underneath the floral splashes of color is beautiful, and i love the brown underneath white dishes, clean and simple. which do you like best???

to download the paper placemats, click on these links:

dots placemat here.

leaf garland placemat here.

i recommend printing the placemats on card stock. if you do print & use the placemats, i would love to see a picture of your event or pretty tables! regardless of if you celebrate Easter, i hope you are planning a weekend filled with your passions and those you love. i don’t practice my faith exactly like my parents practiced theirs and i greatly respect and learn from friends who practice different faiths than mine, and yet we all make opportunities this time of year to create meaningful celebrations with our families and our children. make every day uniquely yours. i encourage you to soak up all that spring has to offer, it is not an ordinary season – it is an exceptional one.  happy hosting, friends! xo.

also:  i hope to get one more {super cute & EASY} DIY Easter basket tutorial post up soon!

also, also: i posted an Easter basket fillers roundup of goodies on instagram, follow @see_jane to check it out!

***

table details:

plates from anthropologie, hobnail tumblers from anthropologie, white bowls here, mini bunny surprise balls from meri meri, flowers: ranunculus, if you do not want to make mini origami bunnies – you can find lots right here on etsy, fluorescent colored pencils found here.

{photos & styling by Jane Rhodes, placemat graphics designed by Lovely Lindsay for seejaneblog}

we are not seeing the signs of spring here in new england {yet}, since we woke up to a fresh six inches of snow this morning. {ugghhh…} however, we are still starting our spring traditions and this year with something new – an easter egg decorating party!

we invited a dozen mommas + their kiddos to join us for an evening of egg decorating and dinner. open-house style.

keeping the color theme simple and modern, i printed the invitations on brown kraft paper and i used a white gel pen to fill-in all the important party information:

* you can download and print the happy easter invitation here! *

i fell in love with these bunny jars, so i made them to deliver with the invitations. only, i didn’t get them all delivered before the party, so we also handed them out at our party as ‘thank you for coming!’ treats. you can find the bunny jar tutorial here. i used schleich wild rabbits for our bunnies.

for the easter eggs, i wanted something simple & modern this year. we used sharpie markers, paint markers and puffy paint. i absolutely love how the white paint markers turned out on the brown eggs. easily my all-time favorite easter eggs!

i needed something for each guest to place their finished eggs in so the eggs could travel home safely. our local whole foods market uses these tan bowls in their salad/food bar area, i’m not sure if every whole foods market uses these or not. they are typically not for sale but i inquired with the deli if i could purchase 50 of them, and they allowed me to. {yay!} we filled the bowls with natural grass {also from whole foods market}, i liked the simple-natural look.

i was so impressed with how creative everyone was! look at these:

this was such a fun evening, i love holidays and the Life that rises to the surface because of them. the balance of simple and extraordinary.

happy spring friends! i really hope it’s warming up where you live. xo

{photos and styling by me, Jane Beckner Rhodes. easter invitation designed by Lovely Lindsay for seejaneblog.}