A Downtown Staycation + Birthday Celebration! March 6, 2020 | *This post is sponsored by InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, Party City and ShopStyle February was a big month for our family! We celebrated the Shop’s first year in business, Landry’s 7th birthday and my 35th birthday. It was go-go-go and a lot of work mixed in with a lot of play and spending time with lots of groups of friends. All of that to say, we desperately needed a some quality time with just our little family to spend together for one last hoo-rah to close out a fabulous month. When this partnership came up, I loved the whole concept and am so excited to share this birthday party idea with you! Mylar Number Balloons First off, can we all agree that kids’ birthday parties are often really expensive to host and all start to feel the same. Bowling alley, trampoline park, pool—it’s really hard to come up with fresh ideas that feel exciting and different these days. Not to mention, the planning, execution and clean up can be time consuming and feel overwhelming. I teamed up with Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts and Party City for a creative spin on a birthday party idea that actually saved me money, was a breeze to execute and was SO exciting for my 7 year old! InterContinental Hotels and Resorts has over 5,000 properties across the globe and one of them, Hotel Indigo, just so happens to be in a prime spot in Downtown Dallas. It’s one of their more relaxed, eclectic properties and was the perfect spot for the weekend. It’s located on Main Street and within walking distance to tons of restaurants and activities. There’s a gorgeous restaurant within the hotel as well as meeting rooms, and a great fitness center. We executed this idea with just our family, but next time I will take 3-4 of her friends for a sleepover and make it super girly and fun! To see all of their properties and find one near you, click HERE for a full list. Plus, if you book early, you can save up to 15% with Your Rate. The best deal, plus all of the benefits that you love when you book directly through IHG. Now to make it an occasion to remember, Party City to the rescue! Planning a celebration on the go has never been easier and I’m so thrilled to share these new party hacks with you guys! Llama Party Kit | Llama Photo Backdrop | Candy Kit (with containers) I ordered all of this cute decor on Party City’s website and had it delivered to the hotel where it was boxed up and waiting for me at the front desk. All I brought along with me was tape, command strips, scissors and some string just in case. When we got there, I unboxed the pre-packaged party kits that I had purchased and they all laid out perfectly (the candy also came with containers). The set up was so cute and fit perfectly on the desk between the two beds. It made the room feel so festive and took about 10 minutes to set up—a major win in my book. Next up, are you wondering how I got all of these balloons here??? I know I would be if I were looking at photos like this because hauling a ton of balloons in the back of my car is not only unsafe, but it’s SUCH a headache. Not to worry anymore, Party City just launched a GENIUS service called Balloon Delivery!!! Rolled out to certain stores (see locations HERE), you are able to go into your local store, choose your balloons, place the order and they will be delivered to your doorstep (or hotel room in our case)! Other ideas if using this idea for a party—order pizza in for dinner, let them get room service desserts, create a DIY spa and give each other manicures and pedicures, play games with the photo booth, set up a popcorn bar and watch movies. The options really are endless and the girls thought it was totally magical—funny how a simple change of scenery really excited them! DIY Photobooth with Props I ordered a pre-made “Candy Bar” from Party City that was waiting for me upon arrival. I was so impressed that it even came with dishes for each type of candy, making set up super easy! Shop my exact candy bar HERE. Here are a few more photos of the set up. Easy, adorable and inexpensive. For our night downtown, we arrived at about 5pm on Friday and the girls were ready to explore. Sadly, we rarely ever make it downtown with them, so they were fascinated with the hustle and bustle and the tall buildings. Once we got checked in, we bundled up and headed to dinner. The walk wasn’t far, but the hotel offered to bring us down the street in a complimentary car. We asked to be dropped off in front of the Giant Eyeball (only about 2 city blocks from Hotel Indigo) and the girls were mesmerized by the piece of art. It’s becoming a Dallas icon and they stood and stared. I love seeing the look of wonder in their eyes! An older couple watched from the right side of this frame as I took it and tears welled up in their eyes as they looked on. The gentleman softly said “Enjoy it!” as we walked by and it was almost palpable that they would give anything to be back in our shoes with little ones to enjoy. He said their girls were now 20 and 22 and they were going home to an empty house. It totally set things into perspective for me and I was instantly 100x more grateful that we chose to take a Friday night to pause and enjoy a fun adventure as a family. After a delish Tex Mex dinner, we walked back to Hotel Indigo, showered and put our jammies on. I surprised the girls with the most insanely delicious ice cream cookie sandwich for dessert and they couldn’t get over it! When the waiter showed up at the door with it I wish you could have seen the look on Lawson’s face—like is this some sort of magical place where strangers deliver cookies?! We woke up on Saturday and let the girls enjoy a pancake breakfast and then went across the street where there’s a beautiful open block and brand new park and they burned off some energy before we headed home for the weekend. Even though it was short and sweet we throughly enjoyed our stay at Hotel Indigo and are so excited to try out other InterContinenta Hotels and Resortsl properties in the near future. I hope that this post gave you some fun party ideas and also proved just how easy party planning can be with Party City at your fingertips!