Kiersten originally wanted a panda party, but changed her mind to a ballerina party after we looked at some ideas on pinterest. She also randomly decided she wanted to have her party at Michael's craft store. So it was not too hard to plan.
I found this cute pink frame, so I had a little collage printed of some favorite Kiersten pics. Then I just tied a ribbon around with a bow. I did have to hot glue it slightly to get the bow to stay where I wanted it.
We also painted a letter "K" and decorated it to be displayed at her party. I also set it up with her gifts on her birthday morning.
So... I decided to make a little ballerina out of sculpey...
I got into my package of sculpey clay from over 13 years ago, and it worked, but was really dry. I had to add quite a bit of water, and I made Evie sit by me kneading the color I'd be using next. Also, there was no pink, so I had to mix the red and white, and never did end up with quite the right color. I may have forgotten it in the oven while I ran errands for an hour and a half, so she got a little tan, and the arms fell off. But a little hot glue fixed the arm situation. It also looked tons better after we added the tutu. It didn't stand up well even though I made a little stand at the bottom. So I ended up gluing it to a tea light candle and then disguising that with some pink ballerina ribbon. This is not my shining craft moment, but Kiersten actually seemed to be genuinely happy with it. But we know she's a good actor. She even asked if she can keep it to play with.
Evie was my little helper with all things Kiersten-party-related. She helped bake and decorate the cupcakes, helped make the cupcake stand, and helped with the ballerina figure. It's just too bad she didn't get to go to the party. She did come away with a million and one ideas that she wants for her next birthday party.
Ben made her a cupcake stand from scratch. It turned out really cute, but I regret using the darker, sparkly pink. Kiersten and Ben both liked it, but I think it looked better before. It was a really pale pink. I might repaint it white to be reused in the future. Evie said she wants me to paint it like a giraffe for her birthday, but I don't really see her sticking with that theme for very long. She goes through 3-4 ideas every day.
She also wanted to have a balloon bouquet coming out of a flower pot, so I just used the same flower pot from Kara's party that she had her dum dum topiary in. We painted it pink, and that was that. Evie says she wants to keep it pink for her birthday, but put strawberry stickers on it.
Kara and Kiersten worked really hard on these little pink bracelets. We also wanted to use them as napkin rings.
Kiersten wanted to bring aprons with tutus for all her friends to wear while doing their craft. The party planning lady, suggested they could make the aprons for the craft. We decided that was a great idea. All I had to do ahead of time was make the tutus and sew them on the aprons. It didn't actually take very long. I just bought the pre-cut spools of tulle, cut the length I wanted and gathered them by hand with a needle and thread. Then I used the sewing machine to attach them to the aprons. I had to buy the aprons in packs of 5, and ended up with 4 left over, so maybe I will let Evie have a few friends over to make aprons one of these days. She's pretty devastated to not have gotten one.
I got one spool of sparkly, darker pink tulle so Kiersten could be a little special.
The bracelets worked really well as napkin rings, and it was an easy thing for Kiersten to do for the party. It went over really well with the girls. I wouldn't have expected them to be so excited to see that these were bracelets that they were able to take home. She also made an extra bracelet for Evie and one for her teacher, whose birthday is 2 days after hers.
It took her a bit to pick out a dress to wear. She tried to talk me into letting her wear her Easter dress, but I had to say no. She was happy with her choice in the end, and excited to wear her little birthday princess headband.
As usual, we had to get lots of different poses.
I wish I'd thought of bringing a table cloth, because the one they had there was blue, but it still looked cute.
The grocery store next door to Michael's does balloon bouquets for ridiculously cheap, so that's where I got hers from. It looked cute coming out from the little flower pot.
The cupcakes turned out pretty cute. Evie helped bake them, and put on all the decorations after I frosted them. She helped me make the white chocolate roses, and we used little pink sugar pearls. I wish this picture had turned out better. I thought I had a cute idea for the cupcakes, but am happy I did what Kiersten wanted, because they turned out so darling.
We didn't buy any "ballerina" supplies like she originally wanted, but I think the pink worked out just as well.
She was very excited for her friends to arrive.
Ben helped me bring everything to the party and set up, so Evie was there for a few minutes. She was sad to leave, but they said they could only accommodate 10 kids, and I didn't want Kiersten to have to keep crossing friends off her invite list. Her original list was closer to 20. So Kara and Evie were uninvited, but they both had playdates, and there were extra cupcakes, so it all worked out. I actually let Kiersten invite 10 friends, so we had 11 girls there, but no one said anything about it.
They sure had a great time decorating their aprons. There is always a part of me that wants to control the decorating to make sure it looks picture perfect, but I let them all do what they wanted, including Kiersten. I'm glad because their personalities really came out, and we ended up with some adorable aprons.
They were all so well behaved making their aprons, so I wasn't too surprised when things got silly as soon as they ate cupcakes and ice cream. These girls sure do find each other entertaining!
They broke into a spontaneous dance party.
Gift opening started off so calmly.
But they all just got more and more excited as she went on.
The group of girls kept growing with each gift, and the gift tower that one of her friends was stacking up kept getting more and more precarious, and it did eventually tip over, sending a few items under the vending machine in the corner. So that was a lively moment.
By the time she was finished, I don't think anyone was still sitting in their seat.
The craft didn't take them nearly as long as I expected, so I had some time to fill with a few party games.
They had to act like animals in order to try to make each other laugh/smile.
Then we played, "2 truths and a lie", which was hilarious, and some of them just told 3 lies.
We also did several rounds of charades and then a "who am I?" guessing game. They all took it very seriously.
It was a crazy, fun time. Kiersten said her favorite part was making the apron, and being the center of attention.
