Five on Friday - Preppy Themed Tween Girl Birthday Party Supplies

*This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Happy Friday, y’all!  Our kids have a four-day weekend, so today we’re sleeping in, relaxing for a bit, and then getting the house cleaned and prepped, because tonight, we are celebrating our almost-12-year-old with a “preppy” themed birthday party with eight of her friends. 

When I asked Olivia what she wanted to do for her birthday this year, she told me that she didn’t really want a specific theme like she has in the past (Taylor Swift, Wicked, etc.), and instead, she just wanted everything to be “preppy.” 

For those of you who do not have a tween or teen currently, the term preppy has taken on a new meaning with Gen Alpha, and it basically just means cute, trendy, “girly” things that include bright colors (especially pink!), ribbons and bows, smiley faces, mirror balls, fun beauty items, cozy decor, and other cutesy things.

That gave us a pretty broad window for the decor and favors and such, so I let Olivia take the reins and pick out all the things she wanted to have for her party.  Today I’m going to share our purchases!

 

O N E – Decor

We’re not doing much in the way of decor, but Olivia did want to grab this satin bow banner to hang from the mantle.  We have already received and hung it, and the quality is exceptional.  The bows are large (almost 10 inches tall) and the banner fills the entire space above our fireplace.  And we’ll be able to leave it up all weekend since it’s also perfect for Valentine’s Day.  ;o)

 

T W O – Serveware

The girls are eating dinner + dessert at our house, so we grabbed this set of serveware.  It comes with dinner plates, dessert plates, scalloped napkins (that are soooo pretty), cups, and cutlery.  175 pieces for just $11.99?  Sign us up!

 

We also grabbed this cake topper to go on her Dairy Queen Blizzard cake.  It comes with the glittery happy birthday sign + 6 bows.  We ordered the cake with light pink frosting so hopefully it will look good together.

 

T H R E E – Favors

She wanted to make small bags for the girls with a few favors to take away from the party, so we grabbed these darling lip gloss / Chap Stick / lipstick holder keychains.  Y’all, these are so cute!!  I was worried the quality wasn’t going to be great, but they ended up being perfect.  They’re made from similar material as can koozies, so they’re nice and stretchy which means that they will fit a variety of different lip products.  Olivia has already hung hers on her backpack!

 

We bought these LipSmacker lip glosses that the girls can put in the lip gloss holders.  They smell delicious and they go on clear, which is perfect for their ages. 

 

Olivia received the Sephora Advent calendar this year, and one of these cherry lip masks was in it.  She loved it so much that she wanted to get one for each of the girls to put in their party favor bags.

 

And then we bought this set of bulk “preppy” stickers that the girls can put on their laptops and water bottles.

 

I had some pink and clear cellophane bags leftover from Valentine’s Day from years ago, so Olivia put the favors in those and then tied them with some pink and white twine.  I don’t have the link to the actual bags that we’re using since they’re from the Target Dollar Spot from, probably, 10 years ago, but Amazon has tons of different variations that are similar.  And we used this pink and white twine.   

 

F O U R – Party Games

Olivia wants to play Bingo and possibly Twister, and we already had both of those on hand.  A sweet blog reader sent this Bingo game to her years ago when she broke her arm, and we’ve been using it ever since!  And Twister is always a crowd pleaser!

 

F I V E – Prizes

Olivia wanted to have prizes available for all the winners, so we picked up a few things and arranged them in a basket…

These claw clips (another “preppy” item)…

 

These hand creams…

 

And, of course, we had to have a candy option, so we grabbed some Push Pops!  Where are all my 90s kids?!  One of my favorite candies!

 

Tonight should be a lot of fun (and chaotic! haha), and I’ll share all the details next week!

 

Friday Funnies & Feels

On the Blog This Week

 What I Wore - January 2026

Our Week - The One with an Allergy Test, an Upper Cervical Chiropractor Visit, and a Benefit Ball

Taylor Swift Eras Tour Friendship Bracelet Donuts

Happy Friday, y’all! 

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites.

Baby Showers for Baby Olivia

February is the month for love, but it’s also the birth month for our second little love, Olivia.  This time four years ago I was hugely pregnant and counting down the days until I got to hold her in my arms, and since I’ve been a little nostalgic this past week, I thought it might be fun to reminisce a little here on the blog today.

As most of you know, I didn’t start blogging until Olivia was one, so my pregnancy with her as well as her first year of life were undocumented, and every now and then I like to take a step back in time to update some of the important things from the past so she can read about them when she is older.  Today I’m going to do just that and I’m going to post a few details and pictures from the two baby showers that were thrown for me in her honor.

Family & Friends Shower – February 1, 2014

On February 1, 2014 my best friend, Shelly, threw a baby shower for me and it was everything I could have ever wanted.  And bless her, she was six months pregnant with her daughter Claire so it was the sweetest thing for her to take on such a big project during such an exhausting time. 

Shelly lives pretty far out in the country, so we opted to have the shower at my house since it is more convenient for everyone.  Shelly did all of the planning and preparing and then she just set it all up at our house.  All of my favorite ladies (family and friends) were in attendance as well as my two favorite boys, Brian and Jacob.  We all dined on sandwiches, pasta salad, chips and dip, fruit, cake, and punch, and then it was time for presents.

Jacob was just two and a half years old at the time of the shower, and all of these old pictures of him just make me melt.  Oh how I miss him being so tiny!  He was thrilled to help me open every single present, and everyone oohed and aahed over all of the sweet little girly things – there were lots of hearts, lots of ruffles, and lots of pink things!  I have always been a super girly girl, and everyone had always told me that I would probably have all boys just because of that, so it was surreal to see all of those frilly little outfits and know that they were for my daughter.  And disclaimer –I would have, of course, been happy with a house full of boys, too… I am a sister to two brothers, so being around boys is all I’ve ever known!  And frankly, raising a girl is actually a little more intimidating.

*Look closely in the photos below and you'll see the Georgia cheerleading outfit that Olivia wore this past weekend.  <3

Once the gifts were open and passed around we played a couple of party games, and then my girlfriends and I headed outside to snap a few pictures before everybody left.  In this picture, three of us are preggo, and one of my girlfriends who had already left had just had her baby six weeks prior to my shower.  Yep, in my close group of friends, four of the six of us were preggo at the same time.  Crazy!

One other thing to note, before you start looking at the pictures, pregnancy did some WEIRD things to my body, and not just the normal weird things that happen to most pregnant ladies.  During my pregnancies with both Jacob and Olivia, during the last three months I literally started losing weight everywhere on my body except for my belly.  My arms and legs turned into sticks and my face became so gaunt that my cheekbones stuck out, my eyes looked all hollow, and my mouth looked huge.  It was like my babies just sucked the fat out of my whole body and took it for themselves.  That’s probably why both of them were so freaking huge!  Haha.  I have no clue why that happened but my midwife wasn’t the least bit concerned so it wasn’t a big deal.  When I look back on these pictures they creep me out a little, though, because my face is so crazy thin! 

The three preggos!

Me with my beautiful preggo hostess!  Her little babe was born just two months after Olivia.

Me with my gorgeous Momma!

Handsome hubs who wore pink for the occasion.  <3

And my sweet little Munchie… Lordy, I love that sweet little boy!

And here’s a picture of all of the loot!  Sweet baby girl got some great stuff!

Work Shower – February 7, 2014

My co-workers were also kind enough to throw a shower for me in Olivia’s honor a few days later on February 7.  They brought in gourmet Oreo cupcakes and Banana Pudding cupcakes and the all pooled together to get a gift card for us so we could buy any remaining baby registry items that we needed.  It was so generous of all of them, and I was so thankful to work with such a great group of people! 

Just a little over two weeks later, on February 24, 2014, our little family took our last picture as a family of three, and sweet baby girl was born the very next morning. 

For more on Olivia’s birth and also for details on Jacob’s birth, click here… you’ll find belly pictures, birth stories, and newborn photos for each of them plus my hugely popular post about how I documented Olivia’s pregnancy with chalkboard signs. 

See you back here tomorrow for Girl Chat!  We’ll be discussing how we stay organized and we hope that you’ll link up with us!

Don't forget to link up with us below!  

Your Hosts! 

Whitney at Polka-Dotty Place / Bloglovin / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter 

Stefanie at Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam & Dylan Too / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest / Facebook

Keri at Keri Lynn Synder / Faceobok / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest 

Mauri at The American Patriette /  Facebook /  Pinterest / Instagram

Sarah at Sarah E. Frazer / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest 

Lindsay at Lindsay's Sweet World /  Bloglovin / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter

*Linking up with The Pleated Poppy for What I What I Wore, Pumps & Push Ups for Oh, Hey Girl! Link-Up, The Mummy Chronicles, Tucker Up, Shopping My Closet for Style Me Wednesday, Classy Yet Trendy for Trendy Wednesday Link-Up, The Blended Blog and Jessi's Design and Going the Distance for What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesday.

An InLinkz Link-up

<!-- end InLinkz script —>

How to Stage Your Home When Hosting Guests

*This post may contain affiliate links.

Hosting season is upon us!  Football parties, Halloween parties, Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas gatherings, New Year’s Eve soirees… these next four months will be packed with opportunities to host. 

I for one have always adored hosting and I’ve done my fair share throughout the years – wedding showers, bachelorette parties, baby showers, birthday parties, random game nights, poker nights, Christmas dinners, Sunday dinners… I’ve done them all!  Since we are now in our 30s, wedding and baby season is pretty much behind us, so I don’t get the opportunity to host as much as I used to, but I still love to host when the opportunity arises.  In the words of Monica on Friends,

I’m a big believer in setting the mood/tone for a party, and in my opinion the ambience is just as important as the people and the food.  I like for our home to feel warm, inviting, and fun… a place where people can feel comfortable, kick back, and feel relaxed.  I typed up a checklist years ago containing all of the things that I do before we have people over, and I’m going to share it with you today.

Tidy Up Your Living Space

This one pretty much goes without saying… it’s obvious that you don’t want your guests tripping over the kids’ toys or sitting on old magazines.  I always do a full sweep putting all of our things where they belong before we have company.  Just remember, everything has a place and everything in its place.  It’s a good motto to live by.  ;o)

Hide Things No One Should See

This may sound a little strange, and it also might not be something that you would have even thought of, but I’m sure that everyone has something that they don’t necessarily want their guests to see.  A baby gate?  Prescriptions?

For us, there are two things I can think of… first of all, there is a toy basket that has a permanent home in our living room.  I typically put it upstairs in the play room for the evening to give the room a less-cluttered feel.  Second of all, Maui sleeps in our guest bathroom, so her crate and bed are always in there.  While having them there doesn’t bother us on a daily basis, when we have guests over I do like to hide them to make the bathroom look like, well, a bathroom and not a doggie daycare.  I just stick the crate and bed in the bathtub behind the shower curtain and nobody ever even knows it’s there!  Unless, of course, they’re nosy and they look behind the curtain!  To which they will also find the plunger and a couple of other odds and ends.  Hehe.  #NobodyEverShowersInThere  

Clean All Surfaces

In addition to making sure that everything is tidy, I also make sure that everything is clean.  I scrub the toilets, dust and wipe down all surfaces, sweep, mop, and/or vacuum all floors.  Your guests probably won’t want to come back if they have to use a filthy toilet.  ;o)  I totally love this as an all-purpose cleaner.  It's fantastic!

Turn on Ambient Lighting

You can never have too many lamps or twinkle lights.  And I do mean any time of the year, not just at Christmas.  Ever since I moved out of my parents’ house I’ve had a ficus tree carefully wrapped in white twinkle lights somewhere in my house.  In our old house, it was in the dining room, but in our current home we have one in our dining as well as front and center in the living room where we spend the majority of our time.  I cannot stress how much a simple strand of twinkle lights can transform a space. 

Our ambient lighting includes all lamps (we have a ton of them), the light over our mantle, the twinkle lights in the ficus tree in the living room and the dining room, my marquee letters in the kitchen, and the string lights on our back porch.  It sounds like a lot, but it only takes a matter of minutes to turn them all on and have them shining brightly!

Open the Blinds

Opening the blinds and/or shutters makes the house feel more open, it lets natural light in (if the party is during daylight hours) and in my personal opinion, it just makes the house look more elegant.  Plus, that allows your guests to see your beautiful string lights on the back porch!

Light Candles

I burn candles pretty much year round.  I have a signature spring and summer scent (Limoncello), a signature fall and Christmas scent (Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin), and a signature New Year’s scent (Champagne Toast).  I also love this candle during the early months of the year.  It is seriously one of the best scented candles ever. 

These scents all make our home smell divine and that really adds to the overall ambiance of the room.  I typically light one in the kitchen so the scent wafts through the entire downstairs level, and I also light one in the guest bathroom. 

*Just be sure to keep them out of the reach of little hands if you’re hosting a party where kids will be present.

Comprise the Perfect Playlist

Music is powerful.  So very powerful.  A song can transport you back to a specific time and place in a split second.  It has always been at the forefront of my life and I play it constantly in the house, in the car, and at work.  Y’all all know that I have a very eclectic taste in music, but if I could only listen to one genre for the rest of my life it would be standards and jazz from the 40’s.  Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday… What a fantastic decade for music.  It is definitely my go-to for dinner parties.  There’s just something about a piano, a saxophone, a trumpet, and a bass combined with a sultry voice that just exudes relaxation and contentment.

My play list does vary based on the event, though!  I tend to love folksy music (think Ray Lamontagne and The Lumineers) during the spring, country music during the summer, old standards in the fall, and then, of course, Christmas tunes pretty much any time after November first. 

Music is everything and a good playlist can really set the tone for your party.  

Decorate for the Occasion

I am all about a good party theme.  All about it.  Decorations just add to the fun in my opinion, so I love to decorate – fun plates and napkins, adorable paper straws, a good table cloth, maybe even a festive banner over the fireplace.  I also love to tie-in my chalkboard in the kitchen with the theme.  So fun!

Create a Signature Cocktail

I know this is not really a part of house staging, but I thought that I would mention it because it is also something that I love for setting the mood at a party.  We are big drinkers in our family and B and I love to open a bottle of wine, try a new craft beer, or whip up a good cocktail, and I love mixing up something special for our guests.  Heck, we even have a fully stocked bar cart!  We hosted my entire extended family (30+ people) for Christmas several years in a row after we moved in our house and I always made a huge batch of Christmas punch.  Unfortunately I didn’t blog back then so the recipe isn’t already on my blog, but maybe I’ll have to remedy that this Christmas and get it up here!

I also love serving Moscow Mules in our frosty copper mugs or whipping up a batch of margaritas in our cactus margarita glasses, and I also really love this recipe for summer.  Ask my Momma… she loves it, too!

For kid-friendly parties, I love dumping bottles of lemonade in my punch bowl and lining the side of the bowl with fresh lemon wedges.  So simple, but it pacts a punch simply because of the way it’s presented.  When my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my brother and sister-in-law two years ago we even did a hot chocolate bar and it set the tone for a very cozy evening.

Well, I think that’s enough rambling for one day... I’ll leave you with a list of parties that I’ve hosted that are actually on the blog.  There aren’t many since I’ve only been blogging for a couple of years, but this should at least give you a taste of what I love.

Jacob's ABC First Birthday

Olivia's Pink & Gold Themed First Birthday (my most viewed post ever)

Jacob's Poo Poo Party (yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like)

Winter-Themed Gender Neutral Baby Shower
Christmas 2016

Also, if you would like to see the rest of our home, all links to all of the rooms including all of my holiday decorations are listed here.

And before I go, I thought that I would mention this because I found it pretty hilarious… as I was going over my list for this post, I saw that #6 said “turn on digital picture frame in kitchen.”  Haha.  That just goes to show you how old my original list is! 

Now to prepare for the football get-together that we are hosting this weekend!  Happy Tuesday, y’all!

And now it's time for the Tuesday Talk Link Up!

Hosted by:

Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Crystal at Hall Around Texas | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Jessica at Sweet Little Ones | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Stefanie at Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam, & Dylan Too | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Becky at BYBMG | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Lindsay at Lindsay's Sweet World | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Sarah at Sarah E. Frazer | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Justine at Full Hands, Full Heart
Christina at Waltzing In Beauty | Pinterest | Instagram
Meghan at The Adventure Starts Here | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Tina at Go Big or Go Home | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Whitney at Polka-Dotty Place | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

An InLinkz Link-up