Sir Theodore Is Four!

A Backyard Brave Knight Bounce Castle Birthday

Believe it or not we’ve never thrown our boys a birthday! Teddy is at such a fun age and wanted “all his friendies” to come celebrate with him so we invited all our brave knights & princesses over to our bounce castle to party for his 4th birthday!

A few plans got tossed to the side last minute, but we were so happy with how everything turned out for Teddy’s big day- from our DIY canvas Coat of Arms to our make shift backyard armory- we tried to make sure all the kiddos had something fun to do!

One of our Fave Photographers & Humans joined us for our big day @ilennismartinezphotography and her adorable bebes came to slay some dragons and of course capture our wonderful moments that we wouldn't trust to anyone else! Including Ted's first real bday bash! Ilennis produces stunning images, from bridal to commercial photography, her skillset really knows no limits! She's my favorite event photographer because she has a background in planning + designing herself and is always mindful of details, even mindful of your brand. She also happens to be a pretty stellar person!

We love our friends at @tinytreasures_softplay her collection of children's bounce houses and soft play setups offers a wide selection of options, styles- and sizes for whatever your kiddos need to party! We went with the White Castle but let me tell you I’m comin for that black bouncer soon!

These bouncers have installation hooks on them which makes decorating them a super easy DIY - we strung up some loons and they provided us with a cool vinyl decal too! Sir Theodore definitely had the coolest castle on the block!

We had slightly different plans for our pint sized picnic but heavy rains in the morning prevented us from putting down our blankets and cushions- we had fun designing a table fit for a knight with fresh greenery garlands from our fave flower friend @flowermoney really brought it all together- we used garland in several places throughout the party and it made us feel fancy! I love beautiful blooms but it didn’t really fit with our theme, and I’ve had good luck using greens in the past- they felt masculine but whimsical!

When it comes to Kids Partyware we've come a long way from solid color paper plates from the Party Aisle at the Supermarket and Meri Meri Party has an amazing collection of tableware and party decor that basically make decorating your kids table a total breeze! I swooped up the Brave Knights + Princesses theme "kit" from their website merimeri.com several years ago and have been hanging onto it waiting to use it for something adorable and my son's birthday might as well be it! My sister found a vintage shield + helmet at a local antique shop and knew all too well that I def would want it for our Brave Knight Birthday Bash!

The Kit included all the basics + fun details like Brave Knight "Helmet" party hats and some balloons + tassels, adorable shield plates and the cutest printed tableware ever! All of their themes and color schemes are magical, the brave knights reminded me of one of our favorite books to read "Sir Kevin of Devon" and I fell in love with this theme instantly!

To bring a little more bougie to the bday I opted for these awesome goblets for the kids, it was the one thing on the table they actually used so that is always great when an adorable detail is actually functional. I found them on orientaltrading.com which is also where I snagged our birthday craft!

Teddy asked specifically to do "crafty things" at his party so I made sure I found something for kids to do while they were taking turns sword fighting or jumping in the bounce castle. We setup a small table for DIY Coat of Arms/Family Crest Pennants with Iron on patches of Shields and Swords and other stickers and fun things to decorate it with like puffy paint and felt stickers! The Canvas Banners were perfect for the kids to design their own Coat of Arms and take home to hang in their rooms! Some guests put their names on them, some princesses and glittery stars- needless to say all the kids loved making a mess!

We had planned to deck out our backdrop with a ton of loons but again the Tri-Cities wind was a little dicey that morning so we attached them to our castle instead without having to worry as much about them being blown away- with or without the balloon garland though, I do love how our Armory Walls turned out!

Last Halloween the Dollar Tree by my house had piles and piles of these adorable shields + brave knight body armor. I bought 8 of each because...they were a dollar....and because I'm me and you never know when you're going to need 8 Knight costumes right? I mounted them all with clear command hooks, all of the shields and armor came with straps on them so it was a pretty simple setup. I had other plans for the vinyl on this backdrop but my gal fell through so I bought these stickers at hobby lobby the night before and it got the job done. The swords were another Oriental Trading find, they came in a 12 pack and worked perfect for our backdrop below our Slain Dragon!

Our Dragon is our last DIY for our Brave Knight Bash- I have been wanting to incorporate a taxidermy-style installation for an event for some time, and this little Slain Dragon Head Wall Mount was fun, easy and now I can't wait to do something similar again! I landed on a mask and a styrofoam head because I really didn't know where to find a dragon head or have the time to make one, and I'm just lucky this weird idea worked.

I found the Dragon Mask on Amazon.com and had a few leftover heads (from a Schitt's Creek party where we did a Moira Rose Wig Bar) but if you don't happen to have those layin around you can find styrofoam heads in the craft aisle at Wal-Mart. The mask had straps on it so I just shoved the head into the mask like you would if you were wearing it and rubberband-ed the back of the straps to the head. The bottom of the head has a hole in it, we took it to Lowes and found a dowel that fit and my hubby cut a small triangular piece to tilt the head to the position I wanted it, and then drilled it onto a wooden slab I found at Wal-Mart in the painting/wood crafts aisle.

We didn't get a chance to photograph the adorable Cake that we eventually got because the bakery lost our order.......but we dined on all of Sir Theodore's faves like a Mcdonalds Nuggets Buffet and Wal-Mart Cheesey Breadsticks (both his favorites, both honestly amazing) The only thing that made our spread better was the Albertson's Fried Chicken.