you are our sunshine

In France it is traditional for weddings and baptisms to hand out candy coated almonds called "dragées" as a souvenir of the event. Looking it up on the www I found that this is what they are actually symbolizing with regards to weddings:

The "bitter" almonds and the "sweet" sugar symbolize the bitterness of life and sweetness of love. The treats are often packaged in groups of five to represent happiness, health, longevity, wealth, and fertility.

source

When I was planning Lara's baptism I knew what theme I wanted to use - my favorite flower - the sunflower! I actually had the theme in mind way before I even got pregnant, so I was ready to put it in place when the time came!

To hand out your "party favors" you can use little bags, pouches or an array of baby themed objects that can be found in stores. But I had always thought it would be fun to recycle baby food jars. Lara was not yet onto solids, so I asked some friends to help collect the number of jars I needed. My mom helped me paint the lids in a bright sunflower yellow!

At the same time m&m's just started launching their personalized m&m's that you can order in the color of your choice with names & dates printed on them.

I opted for yellow and orange since I got the brown almonds, so the full pallet of sunflower colors was there! The m&m's would substitute the label that one usually makes with the child's name and date of baptism.

The final touch was to add in a small fake sunflower inside the jar which tied in with the theme and added a nice little touch. Here's the final outcome:

 

I really like having used the baby food jars. On the one hand it's recycling rather than just throwing away... and on the other hand it really says "baby". It would work great for a baby shower too!!

What other traditional gifts are there for baptism's?

hear ye!

Getting ready to celebrate my mini munchkins 4th & 6th birthdays!! Since their birthdays are only 4 days apart we have opted for a joint kiddy birthday bash in the last few years, coming up with themes that work for boys & girls. So far we've done Dora & Diego and Neverland (i.e. Fairies & Pirates).

This year we have opted for a Princess & Knight theme, and so I've worked on the invites and am prepping the decorations for "Château Kobtzeff"!

And what castle would be complete without it's very own coat of arms??

Inspired by Lara & Ilya's colors, Pink & Green (Misha is Blue), I browsed the web for ideas and decided to go for a shield divided in four plus a space in the middle for the Kobtzeff 'K'. 4 green Stars for Ilya, 6 pink Fleurs de Lys for Lara, a dragon and a sword et voilà:

 

What's fun with this is that I can now make bunting and other elements to decorate the entrance and table using the different elements from the coat of arms.... but more on that later!

What are your favorite party themes?