Last Friday Violet turned 6!
Six! Really? I know all parents say this all of the time...how can it be? To me six is hard to swallow, it's like we are on the fast track to 16 or something...
It surprises me every year to see how much she has grown and each year I think "she's not a little girl anymore...she's a full blown person!" Well, of course she is still a little girl, but she has such grown up things to say and to talk about it, It's almost like that scene from "Father of the Bride" only in reverse...I'm sitting across from a little girl who sometimes feels like a twenty something, well maybe just a teenager, but still...
Months ago she decided that she wanted to have a "woodland themed" birthday party and so it was decided...Although, I have to admit not much came together before last Thursday (two days before the party!).
The planning began with an invite, which I drew and painted myself (with watercolor pencils and paints)... I am not a painter or a drawer, but Violet liked it, so that's what matters, right!
After she saw my invitation, Violet began her own planning! She drew a picture of what she thought the party ought to look like... (I added in some descriptions...)
And, honestly, that's pretty much where we were last Thursday...Between snow days, preschool open houses, and Kindergarten Valentine's Day parties... I was behind...and exhausted and not completely motivated to "do it up" as we have in Birthday parties past...
But then there was always this little reminder in the back of my head, her vision...
And so I worked my tail off to try to "do it up" as she imagined it...
While I didn't start any of the actual making and putting together until last week...I did have thoughts and vague plans floating around my head...and, as luck would have it, on a trip to the thrift store one day I found this set of four raccoon mugs! They were perfect for forks, spoons and knives...and of course birch bark paper straws!
I used cardstock and cut out woodland animals for decorations around the house, along with the original woodland animal party painting...
We gathered up all of our woodland animals from around the house and perched them up on the mantle to join the party. I constructed a "fairy tree" with foam and poster board. We found some adorable woodland animals 3D puzzles at Michaels...And, oh there were sweet little fairies flying all around the house too!
I used the new Handmade Charlotte Woodland Stencils to decorate muslin goody bags, paper table cloths and a Happy Birthday banner... I also used these printable sewing cards from Handmade Charlotte (sans stitching) as part of the decor...
For the food table, I simply used some Woodland Party fabric for the table cloth and decorated it with small bottle brush trees, wooden acorns and owl and pinecone candles that I was fortunate enough to just happen to find on clearance at Target. To eat we had, "Woodland Food" of course! Cheddar bunnies and birds, trail mix, granola bars, woodland animal rice krispie treats and "acorn cookies"!
There were paper masks for the kids to color which was a lot of fun, although, I desperately wanted to make them felt ones...but alas...time! And hey, it gave them something fun to do! We played "musical dots", basically musical chairs, but using these number mats instead of chairs. We used "What does the fox say" as our music and I have to say it was highly amusing...the kids danced around the circle instead of just walking, very funny and fun! And, since, let's face it, musical chairs is a little lame when people get kicked out...we played a modified version, in that dots could be shared...watching 8 kids find a spot on one dot at the end of the game was pretty funny!
We played "match the tracks"
And pin the fairy in the tree too...
At the insistence of Violet, I made her a Fox cake...based off of this original and this somewhat modified version...
I don't think mine looks quite as nice as the others, but it's definitely one of my better cakes and it was super simple!
I made my own beeswax candles again this year (just as I did last year) using cookie cutters and a colored beeswax candle making kit.
These were so much fun to make and they turned out perfectly...
Violet was thrilled to see how her fox cake with "surprise candles" turned out...
And Henry was thrilled to figure out a way to eat his cake and keep his mask on!
We had cake the night before her party too, of course we did as that was her actual birthday...Violet blew out the candles and made a wish. We reminded her not to tell us what her wish was...Henry did not like that plan. We decided that, if it came true, she could tell us...
After she blew out the candles at her party she said, "My wish came true! I wished that I was in a magical land, and I am!"
So there you have it! It was all worth it! All the sleep loss and frantic making and errand running and decorating and putting together...to give a six year old her wish...that makes it all worth it! It was a fun party! A magical woodland fairy land of a party! We had fun, and I think our guests did too! Oh and yes, we totally still had both of our Christmas trees in stands out back (because I'm a bit crazy!), so why not bring them out front and tie some balloons on them to welcome our guests! They still smell great, as if you were walking into the woods...Now to see if the trash guys will pick them up two months after Christmas!
ps...sorry about the less than great pictures...I always find myself speeding to take pictures 5 minutes before guests arrive and I never quite get them right!
