Surprisingly, it took 10 years of party themes before I got the idea to combine Bella’s January 2nd birthday with New Year’s Eve.  The results were lovely, I must say.  We started with an adorable shirt from Crewcuts – with a picture of a girl in a ball gown – as our inspiration.  Bella wanted to incorporate masks and have an elegant Cinderella-type theme.  She also wanted a disco ball and dancing – hey, she’s her mommy’s girl!  We had lots of fancy appetizers, of course mac ‘n cheese, and for dessert: red velvet cupcakes with sparkler candles.

Every party has special memories, and with this one I’ll always remember the children (and some grown-ups) dancing around like crazy under the disco ball in our living room, the girls sitting under that same disco ball playing cards later in the night when they got tired of dancing, and all the kids running around our front yard in their fancy party clothes at the end of the night waving the gigantic sparklers we got – fun!!

I think I put so much time and energy into my girls’ parties because it lets me explore my creative side and be crafty which always makes me really happy.  But I also love that they’ve become “my thing” – something special I do for my girls that I hope they will always remember.  I spend a lot of time working on the invitations, and I keep them all.  They remind me of the little details – and especially all the love – that went into marking each year of my darling girls’ lives.