In years past, I have been pretty ornate with some of the kid parties we've hosted for birthdays. I don't love parties so much as I love party details combined with the huge smile on my daughters' faces when they see all the fun and decor. But it's a lot of work and leaves me totally exhausted afterwards (partly because I'm a perfectionist and so all the planning and prep is a lot of WORK and partly because hosting parties is really draining to me--worth it for the few parties we do a year, but draining). Also parties are expensive especially when you really do it up. So for the sake of my health, emotions, our bank account, and ultimately the good of our family, we have decided it would be best to simplify the birthday parties.
This hits Kayla the toughest because she loves a good party and all that goes with it the most. I think we found ways to make it plenty fun and special this year for her 7th birthday party without going crazy. The proof was in the huge, radiant smile on Kayla's face throughout and in the fact that I did not feel the need to take a nap/hide in my room and read for two days afterwards.
Food and Decor
Simple, but fun and colorful cupcakes. They are actually made from a gluten free mix because I am not supposed to eat gluten and one of Kayla's neighbor friends is also unable to eat gluten. And they were good, so we found a good brand to use at other points in the future. The Laffy Taffy was a nod to this quote by Peter Pan: "When the first baby laughed for the first time, it's laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about and that was the beginning of fairies." (The quote was a 5 minute project to put on a construction paper heart to add to the decor--see picture below, and Kayla loved it.)
Grabbed a simple bouquet and split it into different containers. If you know anything about Never Fairies, they have "talents". For instance, Tinker Bell is a pots and pans fairy (she works on fixing things). Among other things, there are garden fairies, animal fairies, water fairies, fast-flying fairies, etc.) The flowers were of course a nod to the garden talent fairies like Rosetta. I put some of the flower tops in the pot as a nod to the pots and pans fairies. The umbrellas were just tiny and fairy-like and fun and fairies can't fly if their wings get wet, so I thought they would be a fun (and easy) detail to add for the party guests' beverages.
The little fairies enjoyed some lemonade and the cupcakes with some ice cream (the ice cream was our shout-out to the winter fairies since it was something frozen).
My mom is known for pulling out here camera and sometimes coming up with rather interesting poses for the group. So here she is getting all the girls to hold their little drink umbrellas over their heads. Clearly Chris was amused enough by it all that he snapped a picture of Nana in her happy place.
Costumes
We didn't go crazy buying costumes, but instead did outfits that were a nod various fairies because of the colors they wear. Kayla is channeling Silvermist (a water fairy), Ava is Iridessa (a light fairy), and Elise is Rosetta (a garden fairy). Simple, easy, beautiful, no stress.
Games
We played two simple games. The first was a variation of "hot potato". We passed around a Laffy Taffy instead of a potato and called it "Pass the Baby Laughs".
The second game was a simple one that I came up with based on the "egg on a spoon relay". Before the party, I added blue and red food coloring to two bowls of sugar and shook it up until the sugar was each of those colors. We picked teams (I put "water" and "garden" on pieces of folded paper and we picked so that there would be no hurt feelings) and the "Water fairy" team stood in a line by the Blue "Pixie Dust" bowl and the "Garden fairy" team stood in a line by the Pink "Pixie Dust" bowl.
The object was to fill a spoon full of "pixie dust" from your team's bowl and put it in the pot on the table across the yard. The first fairy team to fill their bowl to the fill line won. Kayla appreciates details like "pixie dust", the fairies "running" to fill their pots (fast-flying fairies), and the pot for the pots and pans fairies, and it was all very simple and the game was a big hit.
Surprisingly, Ava (who was the youngest fairy) was the best at this game. The older girls got really into the relay and wanting to help their team win and often were in such a rush that they didn't fill their spoon completely and often ran a little too fast and spilled a good portion of their pixie dust on the way. Ava filled her spoon to heaping and walked at a brisk, but not fast pace, and usually ended up with a huge spoonful to dump into her team's pot. All the girls were very into it and had their own strategies and had a lot of fun playing as well as cheering each other on. It was really sweet.
Gifts
Last they opened a few sweet gifts and then the girls all ran flew around pretending to be fairies and having fun until their parents all came back to pick them up.
Kayla was so thrilled, everyone had fun (not a single tear from a groupful of girls the whole time), and I didn't exhaust myself. It was definitely a GREAT party.
Aren't these little fairies just the sweetest?
