Girls’ Camping Birthday Party

My oldest turned eight years old this past weekend, and we celebrated by having her first slumber party with some of her very best friends.  The theme?  Camping!

I purchased the most adorable camping party printables from Lillian Hope Designs.  The party kit came with a custom invite, custom signs, banners, tags, printed paper… the works!  I’ve done the whole theme-decoration-thing from a party store before, and I think this is the way to go every time.  I love that it’s customized and that I can print it at home, rather than having the same old thing that every one else has and having to find a store with every item you want in stock.

I set up a simple sweets tablescape in our dining area.  (See the cute banner?!)  With such a small group of girls, I didn’t see the need to go overboard so I kept it simple with some trail mix, chocolate-dipped marshmallows, and some color-coordinated Sixlets.

The trail mix was made by mixing chex mix with some M-n-Ms (I got lucky by finding Easter M-n-Ms at the store since the colors matched perfectly) – the mix was spooned into canisters as party favors. The little jar canisters were found at Hobby Lobby during a 50% off glass sale so this was super-cheap.  I attached the printable Thank You tags with pink Divine Twine that I had in my stash, and called it done!

Of course, we also had a pretty cool cake, courtesy of this idea from Hostess with the Mostest.

The girls were fascinated with the fact that it was entirely edible except for the sign…

After cake, it was time for a little camping craft time: the girls made S’mores necklace charms from polymer clay.  This was a surprisingly easy craft activity – I led the girls step-by-step while my sister helped them keep the charms to scale (these are tiny).  I attached the jewelry hardware after baking, placed the charms on a necklace cord, and put them in their goody bags for the next morning.

They turned out really cute, and the girls had fun making them.  It was also a nice introduction to the evening’s final activity: outdoor movie and real S’mores!

We hung a white sheet from our outdoor pergola and borrowed a movie projector for this fun event.  The pergola is by our outdoor fireplace, so the girls snuggled up together on a couch around the fire, sang a little “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, and ate S’mores to their hearts’ content.

Following all of this fun was about two and a half hours of the girls talking, switching sleeping spots, and waking me up until they finally fell asleep a little after 1 am.  Oy.  It took a loooooot of coffee the next morning to make me a little bit more pleasant after the exhaustion from the night before.

By 10:30 the next morning the girls had all been picked up, most of the house had been picked up, and we were all ready to curl up for a little nap (okay, maybe just me, but whatever).  It was all worth it to hear “This was the BEST PARTY EVER mom!” from this sweet girl…

She followed that quickly with “I want the same kind of party next year too!” – Of course she does.

Have you guys hosted a slumber party yet?  Any tips for making them sleep?!

Party Pooped!

We are having a relaxing Sunday here on Abbey Loop...right now I'm blogging poolside as the girls swim with their daddy and beg me to join them.  (The water's still a little too chilly for my liking...)  We are worn out after partying and entertaining friends yesterday but it was all worth it for the smile on this birthday girl's face!

This was the first time we've had a birthday party at a "party place".  Lil Sis wanted to have hers at the Jumpy Place - a party place full of jump castles and playhouses.  What child wouldn't want to have their party there, right?!  I have to admit, it was probably the most laid back party I've ever planned.  Minimal decorations, no activities to plan... just a little bit of food, drinks, party favors, and cupcakes. 

As always, it's all about the cupcakes.

In case you didn't figure it out based on the birthday girl's outfit... it was an Ariel party, just like her sister had when she turned four.  (She's just gotta do everything Big Sis does.)  My own fabulous big sis came up the night before to help me make cupcake magic.

The base of the "cake" were cupcakes iced with swirls to mimic the ocean.  We iced them all in white and sprayed on the blue water color and yellow/orange beach border.  Edible blue glitter flakes made the waves sparkle and edible pearls looked like bubbles.

We took a leap of faith and decided to make fondant extras.  Having never worked with fondant before, it was a challenge.  Once we got going though, it wasn't so bad.  We had starfish, a crab, a fish, flowers... and even an octopus!

My little princess loved it, which is really what's it all about anyway.  (Dig the sweat-head?  Courtesy of the Jumpy Place!)

Happy fourth birthday, my darling GG.

Love you to the moon and back.

{Puppy Party} Welcome to Six...

It was a special day for a very special girl...

Although she's not technically six yet, having a party for a big six year old was quite a milestone, probably for me more than for the birthday girl.  Six.  She's not a baby anymore... *weep*

She asked for a puppy party - so a puppy party it was!  Here's a little peek of the fun that was had today:

Looking through the pictures, I wish I'd have captured more of the setup.  There was a "Puttin' On the Dawg" table, where the kiddos donned puppy ears and had puppy faces painted.  There was also a "Decorate Your Pooch" table, where they decked out their little cardboard dogs with crayons, markers, glitter glue, pom poms, and rhinestones.  Messy and fun!

We played "Dog Trainer Says" outside since we were blessed with fabulous weather.  This is a doggie version of "Simon Says" - the children were given dog commands to follow but were eliminated if the Dog Trainer didn't say to do it!  I think they enjoyed it a little; what do you think?!

I still can't believe it was 20 degrees and icy just five days ago.  Unreal.

But now to the coup de grace... the cupcakes.  It's always about the cupcakes around here.

Oh hai.

What else for a puppy party than little yorkie and westie cupcakes?  These were modeled after the ones in Hello, Cupcake!, and were quite the hit.  I have to say, these little guys were a lot of work, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I want my daughters to look back on their birthdays growing up and remember all these crazy cupcakes their mama made them!  (And their auntie too... she's always my right-hand gal ;))

These little food labels were made on Picnik - I think they turned out pretty darn cute for a photo editing site.

We ended the day with presents and a pinata - so everyone gets to go home with goodies.  Parents, you're welcome very much for the crapload of sugar I sent home with your child today.  Hee.

It was a fantastic day... full of fun, laughter, friends, family, sunshine and smiles.  It was the perfect celebration for a pretty amazing kid;  an amazing kid who is growing up faster than her mama might be ready for.  (First Six, then Sixteen, right?)

My fears (and tears) aside, my baby girl's pretty excited about growing up... and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Happy Birthday, my little Katydid.

I love you to the moon and back.