Scarlett's Dress-Up Birthday Party

Scarlett had a birthday recently!  Cliche is it may sound - I totally can't believe my youngest is 5 years old!  We had a wonderful time surrounded by friends and family.  This was her second birthday in the new house, and last year we were still working on renovations, so it was really nice to just rest in the beauty of the home and have a little more fun in decorating, instead of trying to fight against half used paint buckets and ugly old brown linoleum.

 

Above are the pictures of the display of favor bags that were given to our guests.  Maggie asked for a dress-up party, so each of our guests got Ring Pops and glow bracelets (to go with the dress-up theme), packaged in the chevron bags from The Baker's Confections.  I coupled the bags with paper cutouts: Star Wars masks for the boys, and these DARLING paper dolls from Mindy Strauss for the girls.

The creator of these beautiful dolls, Mindy Strauss, told me that she and her husband are currently in the middle of adopting a child, so all the money made from these purchases will go towards their adoption.  Here is a just an idea of what they look like, but let me tell you - the printed version has great colors/clarity, are very reasonably priced, and are perfect for a dress-up themed party.  I was just really excited to find these, and the kids loved them!

Because Scarlett has been so vocal about her love of puppies, and particularly, her imaginary dog, Pup Pup (I wrote a little about here), I showed her examples of these puppy cupcakes online, and of course, they were the ones she chose.  I garnered help from my good friend, Sue (I am NOT the baker), and they came out really cute.  (Although I'm pretty sure these are all Sue's in this pretty picture.  You can see examples of MY handiwork below.)

Ah, yes.  Here are the puppy cupcakes I made above - they are the ones that look like melted, mutated Albino Wookies.
Also, those pupcakes have a TON of icing on them, so we made some separate cupcakes for the adults with less icing - and this saved on time, too.  They were just a regular cupcake with a tiny brownie on top, and a little bit of powdered sugar sprinkled for "garnish".

  Above:  We used some simple decorations - things around the house.  Tea tins, glass vases, dollar store pinwheels and flowers from the yard.  I also used that trick you see on Pinterest by taking two platters and connecting them with a candlestick in the middle for the cake stands.
   I really wanted some candles for the party, but knew fire could be dangerous, so I used a couple flame-less votives from the Dollar Tree.  Couple that with the Christmas lights and you kind of can get the ambiance of candles without the darn inconvenience of burning your house down.

Above: I hung up dress-up clothes in the back room, and separated the rest of the great room with the table, so the kids had a little sense of having their own "dress-up room".  After hanging yellow streamers, I quickly cut out a five flag banner (to symbolize five years), and pinned it with some clothespins. Then I used some bottles, and tea canisters I had lying around to fill with flowers, pinwheels, and plastic spoons.  To bottom it all off, I used our *winces* 1930's wedding ring quilt for a tablecloth....(I know, I know, but doesn't it look fabulous?)  I did cover it with clear plastic to protect the top, and it looks like it got away with little to no incidents.  

(If you are wondering, that's our precious, topless nephew in the back.  He just flew in from Neverland, and boy his arms are tired!)

Of course, it's all fun and good to have a great time decorating a party, but the best part is to have so many people you care about under one roof.  For those that came, thank you so much for coming and expressing your love for us...and we love ya right back...truly!

(And thank you to my good mate, Lalo, for editing my pictures for me! )