♥Party in the Swamp

Noah's fave TV show is 'Swamp People" and so this year, for his 4th birthday, he requested a Swamp-theme party.  I knew I had my work cut out for me, but I enjoyed every single minute of it.  I chose the color scheme of red, green, and brown with accents of camo.  We held the party at a local park overlooking a lake.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be THE perfect setting!


I just realized that I never shared the photos here...silly me!  So, here you go!

The park already had this rustic sign holder that I simply inserted my welcome sign into.  I used lots of gator silhouettes in the paper goods.

I covered the food table in ivory muslin and then used a camo hunting blind as an overlay!  My handy hubby designed the holder for my fishnet backdrop.  He anchored two curtain rods in buckets filled with sand with one piece of wood in the middle to hold it up.  He then draped the fishnet over the rods and voila...a backdrop.  I used mini clothespins to hang Noah's banner and some gator-themed photos from the year.  

Our main course was true Louisiana fare - red beans & rice.   

Green grapes stacked on skewers became our "gator tails."  I anchored them in a styrofoam picket fence basket, which was used as a display in Hobby Lobby.  I snagged it for 99 cents from a generous Hobby Lobby employee!  The camo "bait buckets" in the left of this picture were used to hold my chicken nuggets from McDonald's (Noah's fave).  

I used our vintage Coca Cola box to hold our "Swamp Sauce" applesauce.  

Our esteemed young guests were given an adorable camo sipper cup for their drink.  I had to go to two different Hobby Lobby's and Party City to get enough.  I simply tied my name cards on with twine so everyone could keep up with their cups.  

My antique & chippy stool held my beverage dispensers.  I even found camo Solo cups at Walmart and did a little happy dance in the aisle!  

I got to re-use my DIY woodland cupcake stands for Noah's cupcakes.  They were homemade Magnolia cupcakes iced with organic green icing and topped with crushed animal crackers...super yummy!   Thank you to my Mom and family for helping me make them!  

Another DIY container I made was my planter pedestal.  I found the green crackled planters at Dollar Tree.  I also had some clear glass candlesticks that I spray-painted brown.  Then, with a little Gorilla Glue, it became my cute pedestal for my cake pops.  

The Birthday Boy's cupcake was served inside our antique toy boat and was given a place of honor atop my stump decoration.  

For our favors, we gave each of the guests a copy of Petite Rouge Riding Hood by Mike Artell, a cajun Red Riding Hood story as well as a bag of organic candy.

I found tiny kraft paper bags at Hobby Lobby and fancied them up with my gator silhouette tags.

I made a collage of some of Noah's 4-year photos that I took and framed it for the party.

I covered the other picnic tables with kraft paper. I also put a tin bucket of gator-shaped crayons in the middle of each for the kiddos to draw with during dinner.  Writing on the table is so much fun for the little kiddos!  

We borrowed a canoe from our neighbors to hold the gifts as well as be a photo booth.

I made signs and and photo props for the guests to use for their canoe picture.  

Here's all our Lil' Gators posing in the canoe.   Are they cute, or what? 

Here's me and my sweet birthday boy!  

...and one last family pic!  

You can check out the RAGIN' CAJUN Party Collection in my shop HERE and the birthday invitation HERE.

Once again, I could never have pulled this party off without the help of my wonderful husband, amazing mom, sweet best friend, and ALL our family & friends!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Vendors & Credits

The incredible photography was done by Scott of Temple Photography.

The alligator crayons were made by Red Elm Designs on etsy.

Noah's birthday shirt was made by Sha Bebe on etsy.

All paper goods were made by me (Moo Moo's & Tutus Design Studio).