Emeline's 7th Birthday Party

As some of you may remember, my children get birthday parties when they turn 7 and 11.  This year, Emeline turned 7!  She said she wanted a magic party, much like the Harry Potter themed reunion.  I said . . . how about a magical woodland fairy party instead?  She said, "Great!"  

The hardest part of putting together the party was finding a good day when cousins were available to come.  Emeline was adamant about the party being girls only, and she only had two primary friends she wanted to invite.  Her best friends are her cousins so they were the most important part of the party.  Thank you, Megan and Lindsay Ann for making Emeline's party perfect for her by providing the cousins.

We started by painting faces in true woodland fairy style.  Notice the feather on Kiersten's cheek.

Then the girls colored wooden fairy princesses.

Then they painted fairy houses.

Notice Emeline's penguin.  She had a penguin on one cheek and an owl on the other.  Cute, cute.  Beckie, my MIL, hosted the party for me as her backyard IS a fairy land and it allowed Emeline to have a party without siblings, as per her request.  Beckie did the face painting.  Awesome.

Cute Cassidy and Hailey.  Kiersten was trying to get in the picture.

A primary friend, Shaylee, Cassidy, and Hailey painting their fairy houses.

Excited birthday girl.

Beckie also decorated the table.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  It all turned out so pretty.

No, I didn't make the cupcakes.  I was going to make the cupcakes but I was sick and spent a day making applesauce and then I had a bunch of other pressing commitments.  My mom felt so concerned about my being sick and my overly full commitment calendar that she offered to make the cupcakes.  I was going to take her up on it but then Emeline saw these at the store and begged and pleaded for them.  Who was I to say no?  Thus the "Fairy Flowers" were not quite what I intended but perfect nonetheless.  (Thank you, Mom, for coddling me a little bit.  I appreciated it.)

The butterfly and flower sandwiches.

The fairy twigs (pretzels) were a huge hit.  The fairy acorns were the only time-consuming items.  I did mention that the week of the party was a bit of a nightmare, right?  Well, the tender mercies of the Lord are everywhere--even with silly things.  I really wanted to make the acorns as I thought they sold the whole concept.  When I was going home from applesauce making at Lindsay's house I saw the Fresh Market by her house and thought, "Stop there and look for the Nutter Butter cookies."  I sort of hesitated because I was stopping at Smiths on the way home anyway, but then I pulled on in, ran into the store, and found the cookies I needed.  While at Smiths I looked for the cookies to see if it had been inspiration or all in my head, and there were no Nutter Butter cookies there.  I wouldn't have had time to go to other stores looking for them and would have had to scratch the whole idea if I hadn't found them so easily, right on my way, at the Fresh Market.  The Lord is in the detail of our lives and He obviously knows what matters to our crazy Mother hearts!

The acorn concept was a hit but most of the girls ate the chocolate kiss and left the cookie.  I didn't care.  Kiersten made my whole day when she pulled her chair up to the table, read the tags labeling the food out loud to herself, and then exclaimed, "It's a REAL fairy tea party with food for REAL fairies!"  Yes!   And did Emeline love it?  Yes, she did and it was worth all the effort that went into it.

The fairy houses.

The hostess with the baby.

Oskar.

Opening presents.

A pillow pet.

A singing Care Bear that Harriet thinks is the most fabulous toy ever made.

To round out the day the girls did some fairy dancing with streamers.  I know ribbon wands are all the rage but I found a blog post on how to make ribbon wands with shower curtain holders and dollar store plastic tablecloths.  $5 and awesome!

Let's see.  We also hid "fairy rocks" (nerds) around the yard in little gift bags for the girls to find at the end.  They were all found within 15 minutes of arrival.  The girls thought they were great but Jack-Jack thought they were the best part of the party.  He had a blast finding all the little bags.  The girls were able to take home their fairy princess, fairy house, and ribbon wand.  I think everyone had a good time and Emeline talked about it for days.  A big thank you to everyone who helped--especially Beckie.

And happy birthday, again, my sweet Emeline.  Love you to pieces.