a dr who grown up birthday party (hosted by bluff cove olive oil).

saturday night we FINALLY got around to officially celebrating my birthday. i say FINALLY not because the party was scheduled for a week after my actual birthday, but because ive kind of wanted to throw this party for, i dont know, about two years. 

i wanted to throw myself a birthday party. a fancy birthday party. for grown ups. with wine and cheese (but mostly just cheese) and tiny desserts and one heck of a theme. oh, and costumes. because a grown up wine and cheese party just isnt complete without costumes. 

like i said, id been mulling over ideas for this party for a long, long, long time. things just werent really right around my last two birthdays to pull it off. but this year, the stars and planets perfectly aligned so that when my mom asked me last month what i wanted to do for my birthday, i knew. 

we were going to throw the best damn dr who themed cheese party that was ever thrown. 

(assuming it wasnt the only dr who themed cheese party that was ever thrown, which it very well may have been)

within minutes i had basically all of the details worked out, what we would eat, drink, wear, etc., but what i didnt have immediately was a location. our apartment was DEFINITELY out because its tiny and gross and ugly, and my moms house is cool but, you know, every party ever is at my moms house. but then something amazing happened: the incredible jessica over at bluff cove olive oil generously offered to let us use the shop for the party. 

and it. was. perfect. 

I'm sure having a party at a store sounds totally weird and impractical but since bluff cove is a food store, it was already perfectly equipped: plenty of tables and chairs, multiple places to sit, and millions of olive oils and vinegars on which to base the menu. 

oh, and the stores already super cute, so i barely had to decorate. which was awesome because you probably know by now that decorating is NOT my thing. aside from the food (which in my opinion is the MOST important and attractive part of a partys ambiance), all i did for decor was display some dr who themed prints by nan lawson (that i bought at renegade):

and some homemade weeping angels so that everyone could be terrified (ill be posting a tutorial for these very soon):

(plus roses because i needed flowers AND WHAT FLOWER IS MORE APPROPRIATE THAN ROSES?!?!?!)

and then there were the costumes. ive realized recently that were slowly turning into one of those elaborate family cosplay families, which on the one hand is kind of embarrassing and makes it difficult to make friends with normal people (because its still widely believed that cosplay is for children/weirdos), but on the other hand, its super awesome. anyway, james dressed up as the war doctor, partly because hes the only doctor with a beard and partly because thats the doctor he relates too the most (correct me if im wrong, james, if you end up reading this), and i dressed as (bespectacled, hair inaccurate) clara oswald, because "impossible girl"? yeah, thats me. (even if clara is definitely not my most favorite companion). i think our outfits came out pretty great:

especially james. especially because the ONLY part of the outfit we bought/made were the gaiters. but my pride in our outfits was paled in comparison to the TINIEST. ROSE. TYLER. EVER:

but of course, as soon as i start feeling really good about our costumes, my friends shannon and stacie (cosplayers extaordinaire and purveyors of fine screen printed goods) showed up... and... well:

but enough about aesthetics. lets get to the important part. the food. 

my budget for the party was basically "whatever money i got for my birthday", and since almost everything we needed could be rounded up between stuff my mom and i already had. i spent basically that entire budget on cheese:

fifteen different varieties, to be exact (thanks trader joes!). all labeled with tiny little flags (thanks target $1 section!):

now, obviously i would have been thoroughly satisfied with just having cheese and crackers, but since there would be other people involved (some of which are lactose intolerant), we also had hummus, bread, fruit, olives, etc:

and to make sure that we took FULL advantage of being in a store full of flavored olive oil, we set up a little popcorn bar. with plain popcorn so that everyone could make their own special flavor (though mine will always and forever be truffle):

and in addition to the cheap peach wine and whisky (plus assorted beverages our friends that dont have such juvenile taste in alcohol brought) we stocked WAY up on mineral water to make vinegar sodas. remind me to do a post about vinegar sodas. because if you dont know about vinegar sodas you are missing out. 

and for dessert, we (obviously) had fish custard:

(pudding topped with swedish fish)

and adipose:

(freakishly huge marshmallows with faces)

it was a great party. so great, in fact, that i totally forgot about how i had set up my tripod (and even remembered to bring my shutter remote!) to take pictures of everyone that came. we were just all having such a great time that it really didnt make sense to interrupt several hours of this:

for pictures, you know? 

and with all that said, i just want to take a minute to say HUGE thank yous to everyone who helped make this magical party happened: especially my mom and james for helping with all the prep and shopping, and jessica at bluff cove for letting us use the shop, but also to all the friends (old and new) and family that came to hang out, the friends and family that couldnt make it but still took the time to make me feel super special. 25 has been pretty great so far. 

alices vintage star wars party.

on sunday, alice turned three. so obviously we threw her a party. on saturday. because saturday is a little more convenient and (also obviously) we wanted to spend sunday at disneyland and thats just how we roll. 

so yeah, birthday party. 

this year it was a little tricky to pick a theme, seeing as alice IS old enough to have interests and preferences (as in, now she has tons of friends and likes to play outside so the party HAD to be at a park), but shes NOT old enough to understand the gravity of picking a birthday party theme. wed ask her about all the different things she likes, "do you want a princess party? a my little pony party? an alice in wonderland party? a dr who party? a dinosaur party? a harry potter party?" and the answer was always "yes". 

so james and i agreed on star wars (disclaimer, alice DOES love star wars, and science fiction/fantasy in general), but since star wars is a pretty standard party theme (and i refuse to acknowledge the existence of prequel films), we went with a vintage star wars theme. 

because it was at the park (and we had QUITE an extensive guest list) we kept things simple with just treats and a piñata. i got a plain cake from costco, made pretzel lightsabers (which, by the way, is incredibly difficult without a microwave), and my brother just so happened to have a nice selection of actual vintage star wars toys to use for table decor:

oh, and there was the very, very important, not at all negotiable even though it was way expensive custom death star piñata: 

(sidenote: continuing last years tradition of birthday dress fiascos, i accidentally made alices dress WAY too big and had i had to make serious alterations the morning of the party, but thankfully no one noticed)

honestly since the majority of the kids at the party were preschool age, i was NOT expecting the party to last very long, but a friend brought some pool noodle lightsabers to share, and all the kids spent a good half hour playing contently with them:

 and totally ditching the party to go play on the playground:

but dont worry, everybody came back when we started painting cookies:

cookie painting was my moms idea, i had already bought these (also embarrassingly expensive) cookie cutters for the party: 

and with just a few jars of icing and a pack of paintbrushes, they were instantly transformed from just a snack into a super fun activity that all of the kids LOVED. seriously, my mom knows whats up: if youre having a party with lots of kids, cookie painting will always be a hit (thanks mom!). 

obviously since we had cookies, we were also going to need some milk to go with them. and whats a star wars party without BANTHA MILK!!!!

(pause for the like three people who know what im talking about appreciate what i just said)

after cookies and milk it was time to smash that piñata: 

sing happy birthday:

(btw, alice was SUCH a good sport about pretending to blow out the candles like six times so i could get a nice picture. i like her.)

and opening presents:

overall, this was a MUCH mellower party than last year (even though there WAS a similar jamess work fiasco for the two weeks prior to the party AND it was way too hot), despite the fact that there were about five times as many kids, which was totally awesome. and i dont think any of us could have been happier with how it turned out. 

especially alice, and thats what really matters.