Party

We had Charlotte’s cowgirl party last October, but I never did get a chance show you all some of the pictures.  Pictures always seem to be hard to come by when I host a party, but I did manage to snap a few beforehand:

I was so happy to find these hats at Dollar Tree.  I went with a wide range of colors since we had boys and girls attending.

For drinks we served chilled root beer and “cactus juice” and used burlap to cover the beverage table. The cactus juice is just apple juice with a little bit of green food coloring. The kids loved it!

When the kids arrived they were encouraged to chose a hat (above) and a horse and bandana. I added velcro to the ends of each banana so the kids could take them on and off easily. The horses were another Dollar Tree find!

Another hit was the horse ride-ons we made from hay bales and my kids’ stick horses. We borrowed some saddles for added authenticity and the kids really seemed to like “riding” the horses. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap these before the party, and this is the only pic I have of the set-up.

I also managed to not get a picture of Charlotte’s cake, but here are her cupcakes:

For reference:

• Cowgirl invite here.
• Western cupcake wrappers here.
• Cowboy hat cupcake toppers purchased from ebay, but can also be found here.

Well, I couldn’t have cut it any closer with getting all of the party stuff finished. The guests were arriving as I was putting the finishing touches on the cake topper and sewing the elastic on the birthday girl’s princess hat! Thankfully, everyone was very forgiving and even helped out with balloons and getting food set out.

All the kids had a ball playing around with the dress-up clothes and playing in the slip-n-slide, but I think Annabelle had the most fun of all. She loved every single aspect of the party and made sure to wear her superhero costume while blowing out the candles and put on her princess hat to open her gifts (unfortunately, a poor choice of interfacing kept her from wearing the hat as long as she would have liked).

Here are some acknowledgments:

• Clothespin doll cake topper inspired by the beautiful toppers created by Wee Cute Treasures (wish I could have bought one of hers, but I’m happy with how mine turned out)
• Butterfly wings purchased from Etsy shop AttiTUTUde
• Felt for wands, masks, and princess hat purchased from Etsy shop BenzieBazaar
• Cape tutorial from Creative Kismet
• Princess hat tutorial from Skip to My Lou
• Mask templates from Ambrosia Girl
• Hardening buttercream recipe from Cake Central
• Smooth buttercream tutorial from Cake Answers
• Watermelon dish (not pictured, but served at the party) from The Long Thread

Thank you to all of you bloggers and general crafty-types….I couldn’t have done it without you! And, special thanks to my husband for doing a majority of the cleaning and other running around while I got to hang out in my craft room doing fun things. :)

…through my list of things to do for Annabelle’s 4th birthday party. This little girl is still deciding what to wear:

and the butterflies are frolicking while they await their final station atop giant swirls of icing.

Still lots to do. I’ll be back at the end of the weekend with the details on how I made the butterflies!