party planning
June 27, 2011 § 2 Comments
I’ve been a busy bee putting the final touches on my little one’s 7th birthday party. This year, it’s an Alice in Wonderland theme, which was her choosing but something I can definitely get excited about. I absolutely love planning my girls’ birthday parties. It lets me put together my love for crafting, entertaining and focusing on the little things that make my life so full.
My favorite part is the invitation and the party favors. Now I don’t expect anything fancy from other parties we go to, but with ours I just love to push myself and dive into the little details. I like to think that my girls can feel my love in each little ribbon and flourish. I plan everything out, enjoying the process of coming up with fantastic ideas and tying everything back to the theme. I have saved all the party invitations over the years, and I want to create a little scrapbook for each girl as a sort-of party time capsule so they can look back and know that each year we celebrated their birth with a lot of love and excitement.
For the invitation this time, I found perfect Mad Hatter Tea Party rubber stamps from TJ Designs combined with a few industrial touches like brown paper tags and masking tape. Beautiful aqua papers from My Mind’s Eye’s Stella and Rose Collection tied in perfectly. On the back I added a little pocket and let my little one help in deciding what we should include. We ended up with a stamped key, a playing card and a Mad Hatter tag that she colored herself. She has her own strong opinions, and I like to make sure I include all her great ideas.
Last year, her party was a Wizard of Oz theme, but not just Wizard of Oz; she was very specific that it should be a Wizard of Oz play party. All of her friends would come and they would act out a play of the Wizard of Oz using the movie soundtrack as their guide. So for weeks we worked to build a stage and put together costumes. I planned all the details. There were tickets, coloring book programs and popcorn for the show. She practiced her play a lot and obviously had a vision, but we weren’t sure how it would come out or if she would actually even do it. On the day of the party, when my shy little birthday girl stood up on that make-shift stage and belted out “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” loud and clear to our family and friends just like she’d practiced, it was amazing. She said it was better than she’d even dreamed of. I know it was definitely better than anything I could have planned!
little things i love 
[…] while, loving the book and the movies, so an Alice-themed party seemed perfect. The invitation was a fun project. And inspiration struck when I got the idea of designing one crazy-long table in the backyard for […]
[…] characters during their childhood; our family has been able to share the passion in unique ways: a Wizard of Oz birthday party play for Sophie, a trip through Salzburg acting out “The Sound of Music”, and Little House […]