The Purple Party.

A few weeks ago, the planning began.  I wanted to do something fun for Kate's 4th birthday.  And seeing how her favorite color is purple, I thought it would be perfect to do a Purple Party!

Like you saw yesterday, I sent out the invitations, instructing invitees to wear all purple.

Then came the decorations.  That was the big thing to me.
So I went & grabbed the 3 shades of purple spray paint by Krylon: Rich Plum, Purple, & Gum Drop.
I hit the dollar store for a purple table cloth, streamers, plates, utensils, party bags & favors and some doilies.
I started with the doilies.  I grabbed my spray paint and sprayed the doilies all shades of purple.
I used my eCraft and cut out "4"'s to put on the doilies.  Then i stuck them on string so I could hang them on the walls.  Then I got some tissue paper and made a big purplr puff ball to hang from the ceiling.

I spray painted my cake stands different shades of purple to hold the food and the favor bags.
For the bags, I cut out the middle of the doily and put that on the bag.  I then cut out the initials of everyone coming.  I added some purple bling to that.  Inside of the bags, i put mostly purple candy...although that can be hard to find so I stuck in some other stuff too :)
Alright, enough talk right?  Here's the pictures.

The party started with some balloon games.  I gave them popcicle sticks and they had to keep the balloons up in the air.
Next, they had to find the balloons that had something inside of it and try to pop them.  THey were puzzle pieces that they then had to piece together to find a picture of the birthday girl!

Next activity was coloring some wooden mermaids or coloring.  I found those mermaids at the Dollar Tree.

The food originally consisted of purple food only...but my options were limited and I forgot to make the jello the night before...so I whipped out the apples, cheese sticks and licorice with the grapes & juice.

There's the birthday girl!

Singing to the birthday girl with her purple-frosted cake!

Then present time.  Look how fun that everyone is in purple!

Kate had an amazing time at her party.  I really liked how it turned out.  It was simple to some standards but I probably spent less than $30 on this party, making it a great deal.  Plus, I just had way too much fun spray painting everything purple!

Linking up Here.

Princess Tea Party

Boy this has been in the works foreva! 

I mean, I started preparing for it a couple of weeks before the party BUT in my mind, like a year. 

seriously.

And I was nervous how things would go down. 

Yet i have come to realize a few things:

-5 year olds could care LESS about the intricate details of a birthday party

-tried & true games are still TRUE.

But the OCD that I am, I could not allow her party to happen without it being PERFECT...in my mind at least ;)

Exhibit A:

I got these bird cages from Michaels for $1 each.  I cut out some birds and placed them in the cage then hung them from the chandelier.  The kids loved that. 

I do too. 

They are still up and I'm leaving them there.

 I made her another barbie doll cake, like the one HERE and if you want to try to make one, go HERE.

she wanted to use her "good" Belle barbie for it but I would not have it.  You know, I do try to have her toys last longer than a week...

So i grabbed some fairy doll at the dollar tree...

scary, isn't she?  but she was small enough to fit perfectly :)

 I wanted to have the girls bring home a party favor that didn't go straight to the trash.  So i thought it would be fun to make some crowns.  I asked their mom's beforehand what their daughter's favorite color was and went from there.  I am a felt crown pro now! (tutorial HERE)

 Ready to crown each girl as they arrive.  They also got to pick a necklace to wear ;)

 Food table, partially filled. 
I'm missing the fruit tray adn the chocolate pretzels (tutorial HERE)...they were there ready to eat but just hadn't been placed on the table.

On a side note, I had a lot of fun decorating this area. 
I found the plates and candlesticks at goodwill and made some cake plates (tutorial HERE)  i found that adorable cat/cookie jar there too. 
I used my cricut for the 5's and "E". 
I grabbed some doilies from the dollar tree. 
I had that table cloth that I got from my grandma. 
I used napkins from the Dollar Tree to make those puff balls that are hanging from the ceiling.  (I am a pro at those too.  I made like 20 of those! Tutorial HERE)

 So as the girls came in, I crowned them and directed them to the table to color.  I originally planned on printing out some princess coloring pages but my printer ran out of ink!  So I just had blank paper and they still did awesome!

Once all the girls were there, we came to the main room and played "Kiss the frog on the Lips" aka "pin the tail on the donkey"  Joe drew a large frog aka prince naveen ;) on some tissue paper.  I then traced it with a sharpie on green scrapbook paper.  And that's the end result!  It turned out aewsome.  I cut out red lips for each girl and initialled them.  They had fun seeing where their's ended up! 

Next was the tea hot chocolate party! 

I grabbed each girl a tea cup and saucer from good will.  I found a cute little tea pot too that I used to fill up.  I used the crock pot to make the large quantity of hot chocolate.  Then we had them go get food from the table.  I used pretty much crap food.  but I figured it was a party so I did'nt care.  The pink marshmellows were a big hit!

During this, I painted their finger nails.  They loved that!  I'm sad i didn't have pictures of the activities but I have only so many hands!  Speaking of, thank you Megas for helping me out!

Next was the singing and candles!

Then opening of the presents!

And at that point, time was up!
Emma was estatic about the whole thing and loved having all her friends there. 

Each girl was adorable all dressed up!

I had fun too getting creative since it's been awhile!

I have been definitely burnt out from this, but it was worth it!

LInked this to my fav Linky parties found  under  Linky Party button above :)

ruffle birthday shirt.

my eldest "baby" will turn 5 tomorrow...WHAT?! When did this happen? A little bittersweet really.
I love this little girl so much and she has grown into such a wonderful little thing. So I wanted to make her something fun to wear tomorrow ALL DAY :)
I saw this from somewhere, and I have no idea where from my journeyings through hundreds of blogs. So if you know, let me know!
But here's the breakdown:
1-grab some scrap fabric, like 4 strips of it, about 1-2 inches wide.
2- do basting stitches down all 4 strips and then gather, ruffle, and bunch :)
3- find a shirt. This one had some stains that I wanted to cover :)

4- place 1 strip across for the top of the "5"
5- place another 1 strip vertically.
6- place the last two strips as the curvy part of the "5". Place pins where needed.

7- take your sewing machine and sew it down. And your done!

Happy Birthday Sweetie :)
Linked HEre:

Twice Remembered

turning 5.

When did my daughter decide to get so big?!
Gearing up for her birthday party in a few weeks. Here's a sneak at her invitation I just finished up tonight.
I'll keep the camera close as I get things ready for the party and the party itself!