Princess Thundercloud’s Birthday Party

Yep, she’s a big five-year-old now. And, of course, we had to have a party involving her entire class because, well, she’s a social butterfly, even in 4K. She had planned a ginormous fete at our home, but, as the snow and cold wore on and on, I was a bit (okay, a lot) stressed about that. I mean, having a party with eighteen kids is fine when you can be outdoors, but my poor house would have been shuddering with all that energy trapped inside.

Luckily, with a little covert persuasion from me, she decided a party at her gymnastics place would be fun.  And even more luckily, one of her friends also had a April birthday and a brand new baby brother, so her mom was more than happy to have a joint party and split the cost and effort. Yay!

I snapped a quick photo of the girls one day and then created an invitation using Photoshop.adding party hats and the info.  I printed them as 4×6 photos at Costco for 19 cents each, so they were very affordable.  By the way, I’ve either blurred out or covered faces of the kids who don’t belong to me in this post, since I don’t want to plaster other people’s kids on the internet. Esme-Bday-Invite-2013Bday-PitBday-Swing

The party started at noon, so I thought we should have some actual food, not just cupcakes and ice cream.  We made pinwheels with Flatout breads, cream cheese, cheddar, and turkey.  The kids also helped make rainbow fruit kebobs, instead of just bowls of fruit on the table.  To round it all out, we had bowls of carrots and veggie chips.

Bday-FoodBday-Fruit

The other mom made yummy cupcakes, and I was surprised that the girls didn’t fight over who got to blow out the candles…they just did it together!  I actually have photos with both girls, but cropped most of the other little girl out of this one for this post.

Bday-Candles

Two birthday girls meant two times the presents, so to avoid confusion, I picked up a couple of giant tubs at Target (in the kids’ décor section). I cut out purple vinyl letters using my Silhouette, which made it a snap to create a personalized gift that they can use in their rooms after the party. And, it made a perfect gift for us to give the other birthday girl!

Bday-Tubs

For the party favors, I found sunglasses (6 for $1) and had individual bags of all-natural sweet and salty popcorn.  I printed some tags that read, “Thanks for popping by to brighten up our party!” I used pink or blue ribbon/yarn to tie the tag, sunglasses, and popcorn together for a simple handout as the kids left the party.

Party-Favors-ChaosServedDaiSince the girls had so many gifts, and the time in the party room was relatively short, we chose to take the gifts home to open them.  We took photos of each gift, then I added a quick text “thanks” to each, using Photoshop. We also had a great photo of the whole group in the foam pit, which I added a “Thanks for coming!” note to, again using Photoshop. After printing the photos in a 4×6 format at Costco, I cut pieces of cardstock in half and put one group photo on the front and the personalized thanks on the back. Princess Thundercloud slipped them into the envelopes, and we were done with thank-you notes!

Bday-GroupBday-Thanks

This was such a simple party to pull together…I spent maybe three hours on it, between making invitations and thank yous, personalizing the buckets, and making the food. And, my favorite part was that we were home, with everything unpacked and cleaned up, in time for a Sunday afternoon nap!

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About Megan

My various hats: mom to three crazy teens and one quirky dog, wife of 27 years to my retired GI Joe, and high school math teacher. After my husband's retirement from the Army, we've settled in the Pacific Northwest. Crafting, cooking, photography, and reading keep me sane (that's a relative term!) and I hope you'll enjoy following along as I navigate the chaos of life!
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4 Responses to Princess Thundercloud’s Birthday Party

  1. Elizabeth says:

    What a great idea. I think Courtney’s mom even had her baby baptized that day, so there was a whole lot of partying going on! I like the thank you note idea. And, there is a possibility that Leah will be having a party with one or more of her birthday buddies, one of these years!!

  2. Crystal says:

    Great idea combining with your friend. Looks like a blast!!

  3. Kathy V. says:

    Oh man, I’m sooooo behind on my blog reading. Still, just wanted to say (again!!! LOL) you’re the best mom ever! What a fun, creative party. Looks like everyone had a great time. Can’t wait for my invite to next year’s soiree! (Just kidding, sort of…) Happy Birthday, Princess Thundercloud!

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