A Burger Themed Birthday Party!

My first born, my sweetest boy, turned 8 this weekend. On inauguration day to be exact. In a way I was so happy to have his day of birth as a distraction to a day I'd rather pretend wasn't happening... But that will be my only mention of politics on the subject- I promise you!

I took his birthday off from work so Shawn and I could break Cormac out of school for a birthday lunch, and I could work on some last minute party details. Instead of returning to school, Cormac joined me for a Costco party run, yelling my list to me in an isle, "MOM, DON'T FORGET TAMPONS... WHAT ARE TAMPONS ANYWAY?!" 

Bless it.

Choosing a party theme with Cormac is always a bonding experience for us. Themes are something we both enjoy hashing (and hashtagging) out and this one was no different. Well, it was slightly different in the fact that Cormac is till nursing his broken elbow injury and so I knew we had to revolve the party around something mellow, instead of our typical wild party games and pinatas.

I thought of the burger theme because our family cracks up that after each burger (Cormac's favorite food) he's eaten in the last year he proclaims every time, "That was the best burger I've ever had!" Whether it's a gourmet food-truck style hamburger, or Fatburger... It's his best YET. This is essentially how this kid lives life, excited about everything with positivity exuding him. So when I told him I think we could really rock a burger theme, he was all in. I got to work on eBay, Amazon and Etsy scouring burger decor- which came easily being as though fast food prints are trending like crazy right now. (Hence me and Birdie's burger print tees from Forever 21)

For the invite and graphics, I called on my #1 party girl Elena at World Wide Party. It's been about a year and a half since we worked together and I just knew it was time to reunite. As always, I gave her the "flavor" of the burger party (wink) and she just nailed the graphics... Some things never change!

Being as though I had MLK Jr. Day off, I was able to bake all of the cookies for the Cookie Burger Bar (using the same cookie recipe since his 1st birthday!), as well as all of the layers to the burger cake a week early which was a huge help. People always ask me how I get everything baked for the dessert table and it's all about doing it in advance, freezing it and using the night before the party for assembly. Time management is huge when planning a custom party and I've learned you've got to plan at least a week in advance with baking!

Friday night, my 2 besties from the Central Coast came down with their kids and we stayed up, the 3 of us until 2:30am stuffing favor boxes, snorting coffee out of our noses from laughing so hard and reminiscing on how many times we've done this between our 6 kids. Those late party nights give me life and I am always so grateful to have friends who share this party passion of mine and love my kids like their own.

The party was this past Saturday at noon and as far as I'm concerned it was a hit! The kids all loved the theme and seemed to have a blast at our custom Cookie Burger Bar where they could create a burger out of sugar (cookies, brownies, icing and fondant). Although some kids still refused fondant onions and pickles (they just couldn't get their head around it!!)- in the end, every one of them loved chowing down on a sugar burger. We played backyard games (including a fave from my own childhood: string the Fruit Loops on the Red Vines!) and I also had a little beading table set up complete with burger beads! In total we hosted about 60 people in our backyard under beautiful weather which seemed to clear up for us just in time providing a perfect day of family and school friends celebrating Cormac's 8th birthday. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better party- and if you know me, I'm very hard to please when it comes to judging my own parties. I can now see that stepping away from the event planning industry has allowed me to not care as much about ironed linens and symmetrical table designs. I can honestly say that even though there are still small stresses in throwing a party for my child, having that "business" aspect of things removed is a lot of stress relieved. My own husband even noticed, which is huge. Not that he didn't still call me "Miss Party Mom!" for a week before, every chance he could... But hey, the nickname is mine and I'll never be ashamed of it!

Enjoy our Burger Birthday...

party or die,

xo kenna xo
(aka Miss Party Mom)