Not only is this post quite late, it is also quite long. Double apologies to you, my friends.
Amelia and I went round and round about birthday party possibilities this year. I tried to dissuade her from a party at home for her friends by waving all kinds of choices in her face: bounce place party, gymnastics party, pool party? But she wasn't budging, she kept saying she wanted to have the party at our house with a Wendy Darling theme. I am not against having a home party (I've done it every year until now), but not only is it a lot of work, she wanted to invite some friends from school whose parents I didn't know very well. I think it's a little awkward to have strangers at my house and knew I would feel the overwhelming urge to entertain them and try and go out of my way to make them feel comfortable (while in reality, I would probably be making them more UNcomfortable).
It wasn't until I mentioned Paint the Moon as a last ditch effort that Amelia came around. She perked right up and didn't once look back. As long as I could promise a "Wendy" themed party there, she was on board.
Finally with a location in hand and a date set, I got right to work on the invites. I ended up purchasing this Peter Pan clip art for $5 and got SO much use out of it during the family party and friend party. Here's the front of the invitation (printed and mounted on paper I already had on hand).
Here's the inside! We slipped a little "pixie dust" (tiny, yellow, star-shaped glitter) as a little surprise inside each card. I am sure it didn't win me any friends with the parents....
I really, really like when party favors are more useful than junk. Who doesn't? Since the party was going to involve kids painting pottery, I thought I would try to make an apron for each child. They were super simple, reversible aprons with absolutely no frills or embellishments. There were 10 kids on the invite list and all 10 came to the party, so I was busy! The hardest part for me was picking the fabric. I was trying to do it as cheaply as possible but still keeping them cute. Luckily, my mom has a huge stockpile of fabric scraps that worked beautifully! The total price to make these aprons (thanks to my mom's scrap supply of fabric and ribbon and coupons galore at JoAnn's Fabrics), was less than $2/apron.
I originally picked out this bird apron, selling it to Amelia as a "Wendy bird" fabric. I had enough of my mom's fabric to back the birds, but I only bought enough to make 4 aprons the first day to make sure I wasn't in over my head.
Feeling pretty confident with 4 aprons under my belt, I went back to the fabric store only to find that they no longer had any of my bird fabric left. And they didn't the next visit either. I started to stress a bit, but finally settled on this floral fabric as a second choice. It complimented the bird fabric well when they were next to each other AND my mom had scraps I could use for the other side. I didn't like it quite as much as the bird fabric, but it grew on me and did it's job well.
As it was, there was only 1 boy on the invite list. But along with him was a little girl who prefers all things boy. So, I decided to make two Pirate aprons. These did not match the bird/floral aprons in the least, BUT they matched the whole Wendy/Peter Pan/Captain hook theme really well!
One thing I really wanted to try out was making a shadow silhouette. I made a HUGE one for Amelia's family party, but I wanted a small one too to have for the table at her Paint the Moon party. I kind of copied the method I used for
making a silhouette from a child's photograph. I found a picture of Peter and Wendy, enlarged it to fit into an 8x10 frame. Then, I cut it out as carefully as possible and then traced it onto black paper. Then, I again carefully cut it out and framed it in a cheap black frame I had on hand.
The last special touch I made for Amelia's party at Paint the Moon was pixie dust for the cupcakes. I found the neatest little star sprinkles made by Wilton. They certainly do not look like something you are supposed to eat and they really don't taste that great either (as Amelia was sure to tell every party goer). And did I mention they are super expensive? To help with the cost and taste, I mixed the star sprinkles with yellow sugar sprinkles and put them into tiny vellum envelopes. I had originally planned on sewing them shut and making a cute little tag for them, but in the end, I ran out of time and just glued them closed and hand wrote "Pixie Dust" on a little circle of shiny blue scrapbooking paper and stuck it on the front.
In the days leading up to the party, I heard through the grapevine that the party location was closing their doors for good just two weeks after Amelia's party. I was concerned that pottery selection would be poor by the time the party came around. But, luckily the owners put aside a bunch of pottery for the kids to choose from and it wasn't an issue at all. The best news was that all of the unfinished pottery had been marked down 40%! It saved me a TON of money!
Finally on party day we got there early and set up. We had free run of the store (which is really an old house). The snacks and cupcakes went in one room and the painting were in the other.
I had planned on the party being short and sweet. Paint, snacks, cake, presents, done. But, since each kid paints at his own pace, I found a Peter Pan coloring book at Dollar Tree and tore all of the pictures out. That way, the kids could color and have a snack until everyone was finished and ready for cake.
Along with the aprons and the piece of pottery they painted, each child received their own copy of the Peter Pan book. (Also from Dollar Tree). See the "thank you for coming" tag on each one? Getting my money's worth from the clip art!
First up: the painting! I was lucky enough that one of Amelia's school friends came with her camera-toting father. He took TONS of great pictures and uploaded them all for me in record time to Picasso. It was so great that I am pretty sure that little girl will be on all future party invite lists!
Then, snacks and coloring while the other painters finished up.
Then, "Happy Birthday" and cupcakes.
The only picture I got of decorating with the Pixie Dust...
After a little goofing around, it was time for presents!
Amelia was in rare form at the party. She was really striving to be a good hostess taking everything we had talked about ahead of time to heart. So when it came time for presents, she wanted everyone to sit, while she called each guest up individually so that they could hand her their present. It was funny for the first person or two and then it just got a little ridiculous. In hindsight, I think she was trying to be like her pre-school teachers. Regardless, it made for a very organized present opening.
She was careful to show everyone all of the cards and gifts she received.
She got some great things like this princess body glitter/lip gloss set! Boy has that been popular around here!
She also got this really great necklace, made by our dear friend Susie. Such talent! That's Peter Pan, Wendy, and Tinkerbell made from clay.
I was pretty proud of her when (without prompting) she took the time to walk around, make eye contact with each guest, and thank them sincerely.
Then (again without being asked), Amelia took it upon herself to pass out the party favors.
And last, but not least, an (almost) group picture and a little more goofing with some of her best buds.
Don't they look cute in their aprons?
It was a great party and now, it's on for planning Henry's Second Birthday!
(just kidding...kind of).
