So my sweet, tiny, little bitty, 7lb 8oz baby girl has turned three.
What. The. Ffff.....???
She and I had been planning for a couple of months on a "Wizardawizarda Oz" theme for her party. I was thrilled about this theme for a number of reasons, but one of the main was because my 5th birthday party had been Oz themed and I thought it would be sweet to share a birthday party theme with my daughter - 30 years apart.
I had been bookmarking some ideas - decor, cakes, foods - so I was able to fairly easily pull the theme together! I recruited Ben this year to do the invitations because, well - he IS a professional graphic artist and it seemed like a good idea to put the most expert man on that job for once. I didn't have to do anything but address the envelopes and stick stamps on them.
Beautiful.
And I feel like the party turned out great! Kids came! Food was eaten! Fun was had! Cake was consumed. I hope a good time was had by all!
I decided to do a rainbow cake. Of course, right? And it turned out so fun in the end! Here is what the batter looked like before going into the oven...
Here is the finished cake...I was not overly thrilled with the way this cake turned out, but since I had people literally walking through the door while I was decorating it, it was just fine. Plus it tasted way awesome, and we all know that's what counts, yes? Say yes.
And then there was the spectacular show once you cut into the cake, so THEN people forgot about what the outside looked like, anyway. LOL
What I DID like about the cake was incorporating the candles into the "Emerald City" skyline. I had planned to do it with different sizes of green candles, but then I thought, "But she's only 3...I should only use 3 candles!" and that's when - wandering down the aisle of Party City - I saw the individual candy bins separated by color and was struck with the notion to make the rest of the EC out of candy.
I just thought it was really fun.
As for other decor, I used my Silhouette to make a banner for the fireplace.
I love that dang sparkly pump. I added the bow myself and was extra proud that I thought to cut it with perspective. LOL Oh, the little things that make me happy.
I hung Christmas "icicles" in different shades of green from the dining room chandelier for an "Emerald City" effect. You feel it don't you. You think it looks like you just walked into Oz. I know. I felt it, too. :-)
I made a "yellow brick" table runner to go under the cake and sprinkled it with fabric poppies. Using the most fun spray paint EVER - Krylon glitter blast - I spray painted a 3D chipboard "3." I had planned to use this in Lilah's birthday portraits I was going to take that week before, but, well, idiots stole my big camera.
All the food had thematic names; Professor Marvel's Hot Dogs, Flying Monkey Wings, Toto's cheese biscuits, Scarecrow's Corn Dip, Taste the Fruit Rainbow (with dip!) and ...
Ding Dong, the Witch is Punch.
:-D
Using the rest of the Glitter Blast paint, I painted a Dollar Tree wreath and hung it with the favors. It had a little plaque stating, "There's no place like home" and was wrapped in gingham ribbon, natch. The favors were Lollipops a la the giant sucker received by Dorothy from the Lollipop Guild and broom pens.
Yes, I got them personalized with "Surrender Dorothy."
They might have been my favorite party piece.
Also, because Lilah's birthday is two weeks after Christmas, we feel like we'd like to use her birthday as an opportunity to raise funds or supplies for others, since she is already on present overload. This year, given the nature of the theme and our connection to Tuscaloosa and the storms there last year, I decided to ask everyone to please bring $3.00 for the red cross in lieu of gifts. And it's more fun to give when you have an awesome receptacle, so I crafted a little "tornado in a jar" to catch the donations.
And now here are just a few pics of everything else...Ben took some, I took some with my point and shoot and some are from my phone.
She started the party in her Dorothy dress. But in true diva fashion, she changed outfits approximately 670 times during the party.
Mr. Saunders helps Lilah reach the candles when she can't quite reach.
I think she liked the cake!
Playing dress-up with her good friend Caroline.
Caroline and Annabelle gave Lilah all those awesome dress-up shoes, which perfectly matched the dresses she got from her daddy and me, so she gave Uncle Aaron a big hug!
With Uncle Tripp and Grandmama-mama
Smiling for Daddy...
Cheesing for me. LOL
There were three little snags in my party planning.
A) Over the holidays, the outdoor cats had breached the heating and air ducts and so air from the crawl space - where they vacate at will - was being pulled into the house rather than nice, clean air from the returns vents. So the whole house smelled like pee.
B) Idiots broke into our house 4 days before the party and stole our stuff.
C) I was sick with the respiratory crud and had a fever on Friday night and Saturday, when I needed to be doing the bulk of the putting together, baking, etc., etc. Thankfully, my fever broke pretty early on Saturday and I felt much better, allowing me to get most everything done. But I am pretty thankful to my mom and Ben for all their hard work on Sunday. I wouldn't have gotten it all finished by myself!
The weekend was so successful, I even managed to get some treats together for Lilah's celebration with her classmates at school on Tuesday!
Ruby slipper cookies!
I tinted the dough red so that they would be a little more colorful, since I didn't think the teachers would appreciate icing covered kids all afternoon. I just pressed the sprinkles in prior to baking and they all turned out great!
I don't know why she's making this face or posing this way. But hey - she's 3. I guess she's entitled to silliness.
Here's hoping the next year slows down a little bit. I don't think I'm ready for 4!
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