A Birthday Party Befitting a Seven Year Old

I haven’t done much in the way of blogging lately. I’ve been somewhat wrapped up in Christmas crafts and other fun stuff. So, in other words, I’m doing some things I can blog about later.

We did something new and exciting in our house over the weekend: our oldest had her first “friend” birthday party. She is turning 7. She invited the girls in her class, a couple of neighbors, and her cousin. In the weeks leading up to her birthday, we spent many a morning talking about the party on the way to school. She had quite a few ideas and we whittled it down to the best ideas and I took to Pinterest to  make them fabulous! (I love Pinterest and I am not ashamed.)

Her ideas included making suckers, having a puppet show, making clothespin dolls to star  in the puppet show, and chocolate coins in the goodie bags. Each girl also took home their suckers, clothespin dolls, a kit to make a 3rd doll, and a small stuffed animal.

By and large, she just wanted to PLAY with her friends. I suggested that an all-day birthday party was not possible, but that I’d make sure they had plenty of time to play.

We held the party at our house. The usual birthday venues are just a wee bit out of our reach, though I can see their appeal. I didn’t figure 8 little girls could do too much damage in 2 hours, and of course they didn’t. In fact, all was pretty quiet until my niece, who is a bit older than the rest of the girls in attendance, obliged them and chased them around, acting as a monster. Or zombie. Or something.  Then the screaming started. Oh, the noise.

I managed to pull off a decent party for about $50 (before gift). About 70% of the party supplies we used were things we had on hand. I bought a pad of scrap book paper to make a bunting and a banner, a thrift store Wilton hot air balloon cake pan, a bouquet of flowers, and a few miscellaneous party and craft supplies.

And this is how it went:

Chalkboard art isn’t my forte, but this worked just fine to get them to come in the side door of the house. Easel is from IKEA. The house will be painted next summer, I promise.

Welcome to the Party

I split apart a colorful bouquet of flowers and placed them into half-pint mason jars filled with water and food coloring.

The dining room decorations. I am very excited to get many years’ use out of the bunting, which happens to match the color scheme in the kitchen and dining room. I didn’t consider that it would match when I was standing in the paper aisle at the store, but my subconscious chimed in for me.

Cake. I’m not an expert cake-froster, but I do enjoy trying. Funfetti cake (from a box) and homemade marshmallow buttercreme frosting.

Birthday banner. This contraption usually holds the kids’ artwork.

The flowers again.

One of the activities Hillary selected from Pinterest is homemade suckers. The girls had a great time making suckers and the end-result was a huge hit!

Making clothespin dolls. I painted hair and a shirt onto old-fashioned clothespins. Girls decorated their dolls with pre-cut skirts, ribbons, buttons, and novelty tape.

A couple of finished dolls.

Clothespin dolls putting on a show! One of my daughter’s more specific requests was to do a puppet show.

The girls are really up in there watching the show.  I was also struck by the similarities in their hair length, texture and color. None of them are related.

The puppet theater. I spray painted the box, then cut out the necessary holes, made a marquee, and strung curtains across a piece of string. My daughter colored the backdrop.

There she is blowing out her candles. Oh, my heart. She’s seven.