Thank You For Being A Friend, A Golden Girls' Birthday Party

. . . for my golden-haired 12-year-old. Abby pretty much always has an unusual birthday party  - her "Cozy Party" comes to mind - and it's not unusual for parents to ask me how exactly her party ideas originated. Truthfully, I enjoy the challenge of creating a practical party plan or developing a theme from her ideas. Her parties are always uniquely Abby and so much fun because they're a couple of hours where she can share unusual - or sometimes very ordinary - activities that she loves with her best friends. They have fun celebrating together and I believe that is the heart of any party.

This year, Abby told me that she wanted to have an "old-person party." Turns out what that really meant was that she wanted to play Bingo, wear her favorite cozy cardigan, and play "Just Dance 2019." She also wanted her friends to feel free to dress like the elderly also, if they wanted to.

We thought about it together and realized that an "Oldies" party had a definite 50s vibe that would be pretty misleading and anything with "Elderly" or "Over the Hill" didn't seem to strike the right tone. Enter "Golden Girls."

A quick search of Pinterest revealed we aren't the only ones who find them positively inspirational.

As you know, we have a lot of Hallmark Channel fans in this house and, if you're one too, you may know that "Golden Girls" comes on in the evenings. Luckily, some parts fly right over their heads but My girls have watched enough to realize that the Golden Girls aren't just a group of ladies that are even older than their mom. They're hilarious characters who are feisty, fun and all about friendship! Perfect.

For our Bingo grand prize, I found this darling Sophia Pez. She's a crack-up.

Here are some pictures of the super fun goodie bags - the girls felt very grown up with their party swag. Inside the bag, we put some handmade Golden Girl tees, tissues, socks, "Spare Part" chattering teeth and, of course, some hard candies.

Aren't these socks darling? I love sending home useful items. Thank you, Target. 

Abby's little sister had the idea to include chattering teeth. She's so clever. I found these tiny "spare part" wind up toys at Party City. While not necessarily practical, these were surprisingly fun for all three of my kids. 

We wanted to include butterscotch candies or something similar and, let's be real, Werther's are the best. Period. If I were speaking to my kids, I would say The-Bomb-Dot-Com just to hear them tell me that nobody says that except me. It gets a reaction every time and makes me giggle.

And here's the highlight of the bag for me: matching shirts for all of the girls. As with most projects, they took longer than imagined but they weren't difficult. The design was a sort of mash up of a couple of Golden Girl-inspired tees that I saw - loved the hash tag - along with the "Name Shirt" trend. I've seen everything from Harry Potter characters to Pride & Prejudice. I bought the tees from Joann's (they are the ladies fit which run pretty small) and I used gold iron on vinyl that I cut with my Silhouette. I got a couple of different sizes of the tee. The tissues were part of a cute set of travel tissues with inspirational messages on the packaging.

Here's the actual bags. I used a set of black paper gift bags from Michaels. The "tag" was a sticker from Target's Bullseye's Playground (aka "Dollar Spot") that I had on-hand and I drew the hang-tag "string" using a white gel roller pen (the same that I used on the chalk labels here). The tags say "Thank you for being a friend" as they say in the "Golden Girls'" theme song and Abby used the same line when she penned thank you notes to her friends. I guess one of her friends was mildly offended by the "a friend" designation and asked another friend why it didn't say "Thank you for being a  -  "wonderful," "amazing," "best," etc. - friend"? Ha ha ha! Abby loves ALL of her friends and was just keeping the theme alive.

Thank you . . . for being a WONDERFUL friend (and reader)! Party on!

XOXO,
Hillary

"Home and Family" Party

There's something really wonderful about someone who marches to the beat of their own drummer and invites others to join in on the fun. That pretty much sums up Abby and her birthday party philosophy and I have to say that it's been pretty successful. Standard ratios of invites to attendees don't apply and her unique parties generally have a great turnout. Her friends are game for whatever the birthday girl wants to do and this year was no different!

Abby loves to watch Hallmark movies and she especially likes the Hallmark Channel's morning show, "Home & Family." So, for her birthday this year I planned the party to mirror the show format, complete with all of her favorite segments: crafts, pet adoption, health & beauty, gardening, fashion and baking. Here's how we pulled it off.

CRAFT SEGMENT

Upon arrival, her guests decorated gift bags as the "Home and Family" played in the background. It was the perfect sneak peek of what to expect for the next couple of hours. 

PET ADOPTION SEGMENT

Adopting a furry - or not so furry - friend is a big decision. To make it easier, Abby wrote "profiles" to help each Beanie Boo find their perfect forever home. We easily cleared this shelter.

 HEALTH & BEAUTY SEGMENT

For the health and beauty, the girls created sugar scrubs from granulated sugar, coconut oil, vanilla bean and vanilla extract. Then they jarred the scrubs and embellished them with fabric and ribbon.

 Pretty fabric rounds and coordinating ribbons made the scrubs positively gift-able.

GARDENING SEGMENT

Using succulent cuttings from Grandma's garden, a variety of stones and glass marbles, moss and cactus mix potting soil, the girls made these beautiful terrariums.

 FASHION SEGMENT

Keeping the fashion segment fun, the girls had a timed toilet paper fashion challenge. Using only rolls of toilet paper, they raced to complete their dresses before the time ran out.

 BAKING

Using store bought puff pastry sheets as a starting point, these cheese straws were impressive but easy to make and serve.

The party flew by so quickly. I can't wait to see what Abby comes up with next year!

Abby's Birthday Tunic

Some time ago, in a nearby Jo-Ann Fabric Store, my little fabric-shopping sidekick fell in love with a cute and very sweet doll fabric. While I loved the print, the soft blue and pink together weren't my very favorite. Kind of reminded me of baby shower colors. Thus the internal debate began. My daughter's the one that *gets* to wear the clothes I make but I have to stare at it for the duration of an entire project. What to do? Keep shopping. I found another fabric to throw into the mix that pulled out the purple in the print, making both of us happy. A trip to Michael Levine's provided the fun dotted trim and then . . . it sat in my stash for a very, very long time waiting to be turned into something. So long, in fact, that I had to ask my daughter if she still liked the fabric. 

She did and it became a Maggie Mae Tunic just in time for her birthday. I love this pattern. It fits her perfectly and the piping between the skirt and the bottom band gives it very pretty volume. Not too much, just enough. Also, this is my first time making the tunic length and, in combination with a pair of leggings, it was a playground-friendly alternative to the dress. Some tiny bunny buttons are an adorable surprise on the back closure.

 

Mario (Pizza) Party 7

This year, we celebrated Oliver's 7th Birthday with a Mario-themed pizza party at California Pizza Kitchen.  The party started before the restaurant opened, so we had the whole place to ourselves for a little while.  It was perfect and allowed the boys to amp up the silly - chasing balloons and playing games - without disturbing anyone else.

One of Oliver's silliest faces.

When each boy arrived, we handed them their own Mario hat.

(Hat + Fabric Paint = Mario Baseball Cap)

We played a Minute-To-Win-It style game with ping pong balls and cups that was a HUGE hit with the boys and a party classic: musical chairs to Mario music.  Truthfully, we couldn't hear the Mario music well over the piped in music but our CPK host was wonderful and got all of the kids and parents to sing along with my iPhone speakers.

After the games, it was pizza time!

The kids loved designing their own pizzas.

Me, being goofy and modeling one of the extra hats.

Let the kitchen tour begin!

They must be very organized in the CPK Kitchens because it was small space.  The giant oven was the most impressive part, in my opinion.

 

Oliver seemed to enjoy the whole thing.

The pizzas were awesome!

Evelyn got one too!

Ice cream sundaes for dessert.

 

And a few goodies for the boys to play with at home:  bubble gum coins, fake mustaches, Super Mario fruit snacks, a marshmallow shooter and marshmallows (just because)!

 - GAME OVER - 

At Long Last . . . The Party Post

Have I mentioned that I have one of the sweetest little FIVE year old girls?  Truly, I do and her party was almost as sweet as she is.

She wanted to invite only her best little GIRL friends (no boys except for family).  I encouraged her to invite all of the girls in this year's preschool class but she was adamant . . . only the friends she plays with most.  Brigid, her best friend from the class, was the only one to make the cut.  And I have to laugh because, as the grownup, aren't I the one who is supposed to narrow down her list?

I found a lot of great games and ideas - Pin The Bow On Hello Kitty, Coloring Sheet Photo Wall and Hello Kitty Egg Hunt - on this blog.  As usual, a handful of things went awry as I was putting together the party on the day of but, in the end, the party was perfect for her and full of the things she loves most.

We warmed up with a game of 'Pin The Bow On Hello Kitty.'  I sketched Kitty onto foam core board with a regular old pencil and then used acrylic paints to color in and then outline in black.  The bows are just cut out of red cardstock and labeled with each girl's name.

Afterwards, each girl chose a bow barrette, red or pink. Two layers of felt stitched together with embroidery floss and stuffed with poly-fil created the iconic Hello Kitty puffy bow.  I knew that I wanted barrettes and not headbands because these were easy for any of the girls to wear, regardless of their hair style. 

Next, the girls were transformed into Kitties with some face paint.  Abby loves having her face painted and I could do an entire post on her many, many faces.  I invited one of Abby's older friends to be a helper for the party and she was adorable and so great with the girls.

Tattoos too!

Pictures at the photo wall.  The background is coloring sheets.  I printed photos of each of the guests and mailed them inside their 'Thank You' cards for a fun keepsake.

Hello Kitty 'eggs' were hidden around the backyard before the party started for a Treasure Hunt.  Each guest had to find the one labeled with their name.

The girls' contained a 'layered' necklace, shown here.

Oliver's did NOT have a necklace.  I put some quarters in there instead, lol.

The new swing set was the star of the show.  Doesn't that look fun?  Just as much fun as I remember from my childhood.

Thank you, Pinterest, for teaching me the miracle of duct tape wrapped water bottles.   These were so cute and my one-and-a-half year old requested 'Kitty Water' for the next week.  I'm sure strangers thought that meant something else entirely . . . like maybe I let her share 'kitty's' water bowl?!?

Instead of cake, we had pink Krispy treats with sprinkles and a Hello Kitty ring.  

One of Abby's friends has an egg allergy and we thought it would be nice to have a dessert that she could enjoy too.  Plus, most kids, including Abby, love them!

Baby sister woke up from her nap just in time.

The girls left with a small favor bag that included Abby's favorite bubbles (scented and shaped like an ice cream cone) and a small Hello Kitty nail polish.  Perfectly girly and hopefully something that will be used.  Thanks for joining us!