{"id":13785,"date":"2015-08-17T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=13785"},"modified":"2015-08-17T16:19:43","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T23:19:43","slug":"party-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=13785","title":{"rendered":"Party Success!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015-hotelbday1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Good morning! [Insert wildly uncoordinated victory dancing here] The hotel-themed 9th birthday party was a major success!! As predicted, I wasn’t on the ball with photo-taking, but I did grab a snap here and there as the festivities progressed.<\/p>\n

We started with a little “check-in center” (a vintage typewriter table covered with white burlap I found in my stash). K cleverly set up my ipad with a sketching app so the girls could sign\u00a0their names. Alas, the homemade cookies a la Comfort Inn was a bust, but those store-bought buttery ones were delicious.<\/p>\n

\"2015-hotelbday10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Each girl received a “keycard” (thin wooden tags<\/a> I got from Impress<\/a> years ago for no particular reason other than the fact that they’re fun – the metal tins are the same ones I used for the Advent Calendar last year<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"2015-hotelbday8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I spent two full days cleaning our house and this amounted to shoving a whole bunch of detritus into the basement, where M and I ended up sleeping while the girls took over the upstairs suites. I forgot to get photos of the “suites”, but\u00a0they looked unrecognizably pristine. The flowers I added everywhere was a professional touch.<\/p>\n

The evening started with spa treatments, followed by room service. This involved the girls using my ipad to text to M’s phone, which worked pretty well. M took on the delivery duties, but was repeatedly reprimanded by the girls for getting the order wrong. We focused on kid-friendly and un-nutritious fare: mini pizzas, mac ‘n’ cheese, chicken hot dogs, etc. I did up my game a little and make mini rice balls, which the girls oohed and aahed over.<\/p>\n

\"2015-hotelbday11\"<\/a> \"2015-hotelbday12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As nails dried and food was consumed, M set up a rather, uh, colorful disco ball he purchased and “DJ Fat Daddy” took over the house — check out his handmade sign. Obviously, we have very different aesthetic styles. The sign sent the girls into peals of laughter and abundant singing and dancing ensued.<\/p>\n

\"2015-hotelbday2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

K blew out her birthday candles (I did not<\/em> make the cake; totally dialed it in on the food front), and they watched a movie into the wee hours of the night, complete with butter popcorn and Ramune<\/em><\/a>, a distinctively Japanese soda\u00a0that comes with a marble as a stopper.<\/p>\n

\"2015-hotelbday3\"<\/a> \"2015-hotelbday4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The star of the party, however, was this label maker<\/a>\"\". The girls went wild for this cool contraption I got at Kinokuniya on sale, and it elevated the goody bag content manifold:<\/p>\n

\"2015-hotelbday5\"<\/a> \"2015-hotelbday7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are quite a few different tape designs that you can get for the label maker, and the tapes themselves are more like washi but not quite as sticky — you can see them starting to peel off from the keycard and wooden tags above. I believe the girls made about a thousand labels, including one for “DJ Fat Daddy”. M was a humongous hit at the party. I keep finding labels stuck everywhere in the house.<\/p>\n

\"2015-hotelbday6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There were five girls total for the sleepover and I thought that was just the right number. The ladies conducted a\u00a0survey amongst themselves and the consensus was that the party was a 10 out of 10 (well, one girl gave it a 9 out of 10, but hey, close enough).<\/p>\n

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The sweet sensation of checking off another biggie from my to-do list!! Alright, I’m ready to get cracking on some sewing for pure fun…I’ve missed it so so much.<\/p>\n

P.S. The winner of the giveaway<\/a> is Erica, congrats!<\/p>\n

P.P.P.S. Our neighbor, who is like a second daughter to me, was an indispensable helper — the key to a killer party is to basically have a savvy 10-year-old run the show.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning! [Insert wildly uncoordinated victory dancing here] The hotel-themed 9th birthday party was a major success!! As predicted, I wasn’t on the ball with photo-taking, but I did grab a snap here and there as the festivities progressed. We started with a little “check-in center” (a vintage typewriter table covered with white burlap I found in my stash). K cleverly set up my ipad with a sketching app so the girls could sign\u00a0their names. Alas, the homemade cookies a la Comfort Inn was a bust, but those store-bought buttery ones were delicious. Each girl received a “keycard” (thin wooden tags I got from Impress years ago for no particular reason other than the fact that they’re fun – the metal tins are the same ones I used for the Advent Calendar last year): I spent two full days cleaning our house and this amounted to shoving a whole bunch of detritus into the basement, where M and I ended up sleeping while the girls took over the upstairs suites. I forgot to get photos of the “suites”, but\u00a0they looked unrecognizably pristine. The flowers I added everywhere was a professional touch. The evening started with spa treatments, followed by room service. This involved the girls using my ipad to text to M’s phone, which worked pretty well. M took on the delivery duties, but was repeatedly reprimanded by the girls for getting the order wrong. We focused on kid-friendly and un-nutritious fare: mini pizzas, mac ‘n’ cheese, chicken hot dogs, etc. I did up my game a little and make mini rice balls, which the girls oohed and aahed over. As nails dried and food was consumed, M set up a rather, uh, colorful disco ball he purchased and “DJ Fat Daddy” took over the house — check out his handmade sign. Obviously, we have very different aesthetic styles. The sign sent the girls into peals of laughter and abundant singing and dancing ensued. K blew out her birthday candles (I did not make the cake; totally dialed it in on the food front), and they watched a movie into the wee hours of the night, complete with butter popcorn and Ramune, a distinctively Japanese soda\u00a0that comes with a marble as a stopper. The star of the party, however, was this label maker. The girls went wild for this cool contraption I got at Kinokuniya on sale, and it elevated the goody bag content manifold: There are quite a few different tape designs that you can get for the label maker, and the tapes themselves are more like washi but not quite as sticky — you can see them starting to peel off from the keycard and wooden tags above. I believe the girls made about a thousand labels, including one for “DJ Fat Daddy”. M was a humongous hit at the party. I keep finding labels stuck everywhere in the house. There were five girls total for the sleepover and I thought that was just the right number. The ladies conducted a\u00a0survey amongst themselves and the consensus was that the party was a 10 out of 10 (well, one girl gave it a 9 out of 10, but hey, close enough). Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The sweet sensation of checking off another biggie from my to-do list!! Alright, I’m ready to get cracking on some sewing for pure fun…I’ve missed it so so much. P.S. The winner of the giveaway is Erica, congrats! P.P.P.S. Our neighbor, who is like a second daughter to me, was an indispensable helper — the key to a killer party is to basically have a savvy 10-year-old run the show.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-crafts","7":"category-life","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13785"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13813,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13785\/revisions\/13813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}