A Fifth Birthday

Over the weekend, we celebrated Love Bug’s fifth birthday with our first ever friends party and it was a success. We planned a fairy theme, complete with glittery purple wings, crowns and star wands. We managed to order the longest stretch of sun we’ve had in the last ten days for the morning of the party. Since our yard wasn’t big enough, we took advantage of the park just down the street from our house. Bug and I scoped it out the day before and picked the perfect spot beneath a handful of tall trees. I actually had to scale said trees (in a skirt and flip flops, no less) to tie up the line in which to hang the decorations from. Bug and Sweet J thought I was the coolest ever for climbing the tree!

To begin, we sent simple invites to Love Bug’s friends (five for her fifth birthday). A basic card with the information wrapped in a butterfly lace piece of paper. The lacy piece was made by way of my Cricut. Bug picked the butterflies, it was perfect.

On the day, our first activity was for our guests to decorate a crown to wear. The crown was oak tag I had spray painted silver and they used foam and jewel stickers to decorate. When they were complete, I hot glued them to inexpensive headbands. I purposely left out shots of our guests as a way of privacy.

While the girls finished their crowns, I tied on each party goer the oak tag wings I made beforehand. A simple shape, I sprayed them purple and then topped it with glitter (because glitter makes everything better!!). Using a long length of ribbon, I wrapped and tied them on. I did a lousy job of getting a shot of the little girls wearing them so forgive the personless shot below.

Once, long ago, I was an angel for Halloween and my mom made me a pair of gold wings. Love Bug wears those wings for most of the our time visiting my mom so I knew they would be a perfect addition to the party.

I used extra silver oak tag to make a star fairy wand for everyone too.

With them, we planned a fairy wand scavenger hunt. I drew very simple pictures of spots around the park’s pond so the girls could follow the clues around. In the end, everyone had a wand and they were back at the table for cake. For the birthday staple, I took a 9×13 chocolate cake and cut it into small squares and layered it with white frosting. The warmth of the day sure relaxed the buttery frosting resulting in the Leaning Tower of Pisa look.

For decoration, I strung together balloons and wrapped them on the rope I tied between two trees. From that, I also hung an ombre paper sculpture I made. It was something I saw in my head and came to be after finding a purple pack of cardstock in the paper aisle at Michael’s. First, I rolled a cone shape with each piece of paper, securing it with hot glue. Then I began layering the cones around a wooden dowel, each new color moving up the dowel. I finished it off by wrapping the top with twine. I LOVED the way it turned out.

As I said, it was a lovely party and I was so happy with the way it turned out. Not only that but Love Bug loved it and that makes my momma heart soar.

I realize some may think all this too much for a child’s birthday party. I don’t do it to be over-the-top or excessive or be better than some unknown standards out there. I do it because I want to and like to do this kind of thing (you’ve seen my blog, right?). Also, I’d much rather spend time creating than spend money on events like this. And finally, I do it all with my daughter in mind. If I can bring a smile to her face with oak tag wings, crown and wand, I’ll do it. Any day.

After the party was finished, I took a well deserved nap. :) Friends parties aren’t something we plan to do every year but when we do, I hope they are much like this one.