When Naomi was born, she came into a sea of newborn boys. Though it taught her to be resilient yet yielding, it did not change the fact that she was still different. I'll never forget the look these boys had when she pulled out the feather boa and asked them to dress up for the tea party. Then they went back to being boys. Now, many years later, she has come into an abundance of girlfriends, and this year, we had our first all-girl party. She did miss the boys, but I think it worked out well to do it this time (plus, she went to an all-boys-except her party the week after). She says her favorite party is still last year's party because more kids could come, but this came in a close second.
She was very excited to help with the party planning. Some of her ideas were over the top, but I kept to her color scheme (which was entirely different than what I'd envisioned), and we agreed on a fun menu together. Usually I enjoy making the cakes, but they take up a lot of time. Plus, having the party here meant a lot of work during an already busy week. So the Coldstone giftcard from Grandma for Lucas's birthday cake went to Naomi. Yep, I went there. Lucas doesn't really need or want big parties. He likes the low-key parties at home with a cake design of his choice.
So, on to the party. I am not and have never been a girly girl, but I have some idea what girls like, so I brainstormed some affordable favors and food, and the internet helped make it happen. I had to skip the pinata again this year. Naomi and I wanted one, but I wasn't sure about the weather and the extra expense. We'll have to do it another year!
First up are the favors. I made some homemade glittery pink and purple playdough for the girls. The batch I made with food coloring came out beautifully. The batch I made with Kool-aid came out a little on the sticky side. This has happened each time. By process of elimination, I conclude it's the Kool-aid, but I don't remember enough about chemistry to know why. I added extra flour to the Kool-aid batch, and that solved the problem. Online reviews said that if you leave it in the fridge long enough, it'll eventually come to the right consistency.
The favor bags contained one ball each of pink and purple playdough, Tinkerbell fruit snacks, and a pair of sunglasses. I handed out organic lollipops to some kids at the party as well. Each label was made with my leftover scrapbook stuff and some fairy stickers handed down from Manny's cousin (parties are an excellent way to use up what you have). I bought a large set of these cellophane paper bags from the dollar store some years ago and have used them ever since. The kids like seeing through them, and they're easy to tie with this white curling ribbon I've actually had for 15 years and try to use every chance I get.
I made the spring banner with a
free template I saw on Money Saving Mom. The coffee filters didn't look right flattened, so I left them as they were.
With the extra mini clothespins, cardstock, and twine, I made a basic birthday banner. I also put up the photos from Naomi's birthdays each year.
The tissue paper flowers took longer than I thought they would, about 15 minutes each, so I stopped at four and skipped making the cardstock butterflies I originally planned. I stuck the flowers on some branches using twist ties.
On to the food. I made a toadstool caprese salad of sorts made of tomatoes, string cheese, olive oil, salt, and basil. I had the idea in my mind, and online photos helped. Naomi doesn't like raw tomatoes, so she requested the cucumbers on the side.
Red velvet cookie sandwiches I've made before, but with the chips inverted to make them look more like ladybugs. I was going to pipe a line and head on each, but decided to skip that as well.
Next were the butterfly-shaped chicken salad sandwiches, and melon wands made from watermelons and cantaloupes. These took all morning to make. I looked online for melon wand ideas, and found this cute one. It was harder to stick the popsicle sticks into the melons than I thought it would be, so I'm glad Naomi wanted to skip the honeydew. On the right are some chicken teriyaki meatballs (Aidell's brand from Costco). They're easy to prepare and quite delicious. No onions, either!
We served citrus water as well. Two limes, three lemons, three oranges, and some ice. I thought the lime was a little strong, so I might cut it down to one lime next time. I gave in when Naomi asked for two sets of paper lanterns to have more color. There is actually a multicolored pack of three lanterns with our color scheme, but we couldn't find it in any of the stores.
Last but not least, in the bottom right corner is a cute ladybug garden Easter basket I found at the supermarket for cheap. The napkins turned out to be slightly too big to place in them, so I rolled up the utensils in them and tied them with ribbon (the same old white curling ribbon) like my mother-in-law did one year.
We also served rainbow trail mix and yogurt pretzels on the table in candy dishes. I've seen tons of candy on party tables to make them colorful, so I thought those would be good alternatives. Finally, after 12 years, I've put these crystals from our wedding to use!
The weather was beautiful that day or I might have put up some Christmas lights as well. Manny helped clean and set up our back patio, a perfect spot for the fairy's magic show. Yes, we hired a performer this year, a fairy I found through online reviews. Naomi originally wanted Tinkerbell, but the reviews weren't too impressive for the other local companies, and they charged more to have the character. I'm glad we went with a generic woodland fairy, because she was anything but generic! It was a busy and exhausting week, but it was worth it to celebrate with friends and have people over who hadn't been to our place.
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