9th Birthday Harry Potter Theme

My girls are both mad for Harry Potter, and with my youngest's 8th birthday just around the corner, I thought I'd revisit my older daughter's 9th Harry Potter birthday party to reuse some ideas. Aparecium!

Party: 9th Birthday Party
Location: Sydney, NSW

Theme: Harry Potter
Organised by: Me (Steph Bond-Hutkin, Bondville)

Photography: Steph Bond-Hutkin for Bondville

Bondville's Tutti Fruiti 7th Birthday Party

My youngest celebrated her seventh birthday recently and with Summer in full swing, she requested a tutti frutti. Both girls were excited to help organise and decorate the party, and we had plenty of bits and pieces that we could reuse from other events. The key here was to have one large focal point to set the scene for the party - in our case it was the honeycomb fruit decorations. Then it was easy to just serve up as much fruit as the girls could eat!

Party: 7th Birthday Party
Location: Sydney, NSW

Theme: Tutti Fruiti
Organised by: Me (Steph Bond-Hutkin, Bondville)

Photography: Steph Bond-Hutkin for Bondville

Bondville 6 year old Puppy Party

We usually only have a day to pull together our youngest's birthday party each year as it's just after the festive season, but that is a great excuse to keep things sweet and simple which to me is perfect. Miss Six loves all things puppy, cuddly, and animal-related, so we found this super-cute invitation by Meg Bartholomy, and emailed it out over the holidays. I used the chocolate, pink and orange colours from the invites as the basis for the party decorations and food. I had also spotted fun puppy cakes in BreadTop, but on my small budget I decided I could make them myself, and with the flavours I wanted. Read on for all my tips for creating a sweet puppy/animal party on a budget!

Party: Our six year old's birthday party
Organised by: Me! (Steph Bond-Hutkin | Bondville)
Location: at home in Sydney
Theme: Loosely puppy/animal themed - based on this invitation

Bondville Parties: 8th Birthday Party Spring theme

My eldest turns eight this week, and she had her sister and eight friends over for an afternoon birthday party this weekend. It's hard to go past a Spring theme for her, as I'll always remember her newborn days with all the trees in bloom, and the weather warming. The kids had a lovely afternoon playing party games (thanks Harris!), and making DIY toppings for their milkshakes. I even made a Katherine Sabbath-inspired cake! (remember this post here?). The perfect explosion of colour to match the garden flowers, blue sky and bright sunshine. Read on for all my tips and more pics...

Party: Eighth Birthday Party
Organised by: Steph Bond-Hutkin (Bondville)
Location: Sydney
Theme: Spring

Cake: Made by me and inspired by Katherine Sabbath's amazing cakes.

My daughter's high tea party 7th birthday

My daughter wanted a high tea party - as girly as they come - for her 7th birthday. Of course the kids had to have proper mini tea cups (found at a St Vinnies for a steal) and apple juice, poured from a tea pot. What a great theme! It's really easy to pull together a party that's inexpensive and effective by keeping the palette to pastels and pinks, and using an abundance of flowers. The perfect party for Spring. Lots of tips below...

Party: 7th birthday party
Organised by: Mum Steph Bond-Hutkin (that's me!)
Location: Sydney, NSW
Theme: High Tea party

Our Watermelon Party 4th Birthday

Our little one celebrates her birthday just after Christmas in the heat of summer, so when we suggested a watermelon party, she couldn't have been happier. Her favourite fruit! It was a fun party at a local park with all her preschool friends and some family friends too. Read on for all the details of her 4th birthday watermelon party!

Party: 4th Birthday Watermelon Party
Organised by: Mum (Me! Steph Bond-Hutkin) with help from Dad
Location: Epping Oval Playground, Sydney, NSW
Theme: Watermelons!

Our 6th Birthday Mermaid Tea Party

Our big girl turned six last week! At five, she still felt like my little girl, but at six she is decidedly a big kid and of course has her own ideas to match. And as you know, mermaid parties are all the rage... so that is exactly what we created together for her birthday - a mermaid tea party for a small group of her girlfriends.

Party: 6th Birthday Party
Organised by: Me! (Steph Bond-Hutkin) with help from my big girl and family
Location: At home in Sydney
Theme: Mermaid Tea Party

Budget 3rd vintage toy birthday party

We got home from our summer road trip on Saturday afternoon and after some unpacking, thought we should probably get ready for our little Miss 3's birthday party on Sunday.

I had picked up a few vintage toys from Kmart on the way home for only $5 and some $1 lollipops, and had already sent out invites with a cute vintage paper doll on the front. With limited time we thought we would theme it loosely around old school/retro/vintage toys/games/food and use what we had on hand in the house. It was our easiest, simplest party yet, and very low budget. All the details below...

Party: 3rd birthday party
Organised by: me! (Steph Bond-Hutkin and Mr Bondville too)
Location: Sydney
Theme: loosely based around vintage toys and games

Our Big Girl's Spring Ice Cream 5th Birthday Party

Well you know that birthday parties are big news around here, and my daughter has been planning her 5th birthday party for at least 6 months. She wanted to make sure that everyone could wear "whatever they want" and that there would be lots of ice cream and games and goodie bags. We put together a casually-styled, low-budget party, with lots of DIY, seasonal fruit and garden flowers. These are some pics from our big girl's Spring ice cream party!

Party: Spring ice cream 5th birthday party

Organised by: Steph Bond-Hutkin (that's me!)

Location: Sydney, NSW

Theme: Casual, budget-friendly, pretty ice cream party

Strawberry Party on Apartment Therapy

I am beyond excited that my big girl's Strawberry birthday party was featured on Apartment Therapy today.

 Welcome Apartment Therapy readers! You can find all the photos and details from the party here.

Image: Steph Bond-Hutkin

Party Ideas: 4-year-old Strawberry Party

Well, this party is dear to my heart, as it's both my big girl's 4th birthday party, and also the very first printable design to launch in my new online store, Modern Printables.com. Surprise! More on that later. Here's the strawberry party in it's full glory...

Birthday: 4th Birthday Party
Organised by: Me! (Mum - Steph Bond Hutkin from Bondville)
Location: At home in Sydney
Theme: Strawberries!

Steph Bond-Hutkin

Baby Bondville's First Birthday

Baby Bondville turns One! Well, almost. Her birthday is actually 28th December, but as it's such a tough time of the year to get everyone together, I banded with my buddy Bron whose little boy is also just One and we hosted a wee party together at the park. It was a great, low-key way to share the day with friends, split the hard work, and the hosting. We're already planning to do the same for the number 2's!
The cake! Melt and Mix Chocolate and Coconut cake from Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2* with vanilla bean buttercream frosting from Donna Hay Kids magazine volume 7.

Bondville 3-Year-Old Birthday Party

Well this birthday, and especially this party, has had the world's biggest build-up at our place. The anticipation for almost-three-year-old big girl Bondville was huge. And so the big day came and it was glorious. And gloriously imperfect. At 10:30am when guests were supposed to arrive, the laundry was still on the line, there was no food on the table, and no decorations (for which I had such ambition).