We finally had Annie's birthday party Sunday night. The idea for a theme came to me when we were reading her favorite book this summer, Pinkalicious by sisters Elizabeth and Victoria Kann. It's a darling story of a little girl who eats so many pink cupcakes that she herself turns a lovely shade of pink.
I thought I would be so unique and clever... decorating all in pink, asking the guests to wear their favorite "pinkalicious" frocks, and of course serving cupcakes! Little did I know that MY fabulous idea was already quite the trend in little girl birthday parties. Nonetheless, I carried forth pinkaliciously.
The invitations had cupcakes on them, and I penned a silly little rhyme:
It's Annie's third birthday,
So come celebrate in her favorite way!
And join us on Sunday at our new address!
I didn't spend too much time (or money) on the decor, but my endeavors were of course all pink (and purple,which is Annie's real favorite color). The dining room table was set with a white linen table cloth with a swath of hot pink organza swagged down the middle like a runner. Various cake stands held our pink goodies and of course the inspirational Pinkalicious book and namesake doll were prominently displayed. Purple tulle was tied around chairs and various other locations around the house.
Our guests ranged in ages from 18 months to five, so we only needed a few activities for the party which lasted about an hour and a half. Annie mainly wanted to open presents, which we were able to put off for only about 30 minutes! Anyway, I had hot pink plastic beads (with safety break-away clasps) and crowns for each girl as they arrived. After the girls played for a bit, completely demolishing Annie's room as expected, I read Pinkalicious to them. I attempted to make it into a game where they would either stand up or sit down each time I said the word PINK, but they lost interest pretty quickly! (I tried to modify a suggestion I had read to play a type of musical chairs, stopping each time the word pink was read, but I thought that might be too much for them. Good thing!)
We also had a little art project. (Soooo unlike me -- I am not a crafty momma!) I had hoped to make jeweled tiaras or something, but no such crown-making-kits at Hobby Lobby. I did find pink and purple foam door hangers that they could stick with glittery princessy foam stickers. Easy, and they actually loved it! Here are Annie's and mine:
I timed the party just right: 4:30-6:00. My odd-scheduled daughter could take her late nap, and we could avoid typical meal times! I ordered pink and purple mini cupcakes from a new organic bakery, Green Goodies. Honestly, although I thoroughly support the health and ideological benefits of organic food, the bakery choice was more about the close location and the fact that the owners are fun young moms who make yummy cupcakes. We had chocolate, vanilla, and pumpkin varieties -- all delicious. Excuse me, I mean pinkalicious! I also made tortilla pinwheels with strawberry (pink!) cream cheese and raspberry jam that I don't believe a single child tried. The big hit was the pink bubblegum popcorn! At least with the younger set -- most of us adults thought it was clever, but cloyingly sweet. (I bought it at a cute place around the corner -- Popcorn Fharmacy. Another benefit of living in the "City" - you can buy pink popcorn!) The kids drank pink lemonade, and the adults chose either pink soda or Mike's Hard Lemonade -- the limited PINK edition for breast cancer awareness month!
The kids took home their crowns, beads and door hangers, in addition to cute cupcake-shaped pots of lip gloss that I found at a great independent toy store, The Learning Tree. Oh yeah, best moment of the night: when Jack sauntered in and nonchalantly announced, "Mom, there's a little girl in there eating all the cupcakes!" Now that is what I call a successful preschool birthday party!
No comments:
Post a Comment