party time

Elise has been looking forward to her 6th birthday party for months! I really think she started thinking about it the day after her 5th!
David lets me do pretty much all of the party planning, because he knows how much I absolutely love doing it! I had decided it was time for something a little more low key this year, as she had a huge party last year, but I definitely wanted her to be as involved as she wanted to be in the planning.
There were only 3 other girls in her class this year, and since this is kind of a transition year for her, we decided it was the perfect opportunity for a small, quaint party with close friends. So she had 2 of the 3 girls from school (Talia was out of town)- Reese and Farrah, and then invited some of her first friends- Ella, Constance, and Jenna, as well as a friend from both the neighborhood and church- Madeleine. She really wanted a "big" girl party, and so it was...David took Lila and Bennett swimming with Will and Camille, and it was just Elise and her friends. She was thrilled. Not to worry, she's holding out for L and B to sing to her (with more cake, of course) on her real birthday!
For the theme- a few months ago I pulled up a fabric website with lots of Amy Butler fabrics and had her take a look. I had a feeling she would love the options, and she did. Her favorite colors of the moment are turquoise and aqua (is there a difference??) and so I wasn't surprised when she picked a funky geometric floral called Daisy Chain. And that was our jumping off point. I sent trusty Aunt Mo the link to the fabric and she designed a beautiful invite for her. I ordered two yards of the fabric and made E some shorts (her choice rather than a skirt), table cloths, and a pennant banner for above the front door. While Lissa was here she helped me use scrap fabric to decorate the pillar candles I found at the dollar store.
I used milk glass that I have been collecting over the past few years on the table with flowers, and filled some with candy canes, because E is definitely our sweet tooth!



Here is our girl waiting for the guests to arrive!

Each girl had a little straw bag tied on her chair waiting for her, filled with some of Elise's favorite things: lipgloss, flip flops (we would be decorating these later), a small mirror made with the Daisy Chain fabric (etsy find), and some travel kleenex (stumbled across them at target and the colors were perfect on the packaging).

In the corner we had a little pedicure station, with assorted polish in E's favorite colors!

I put her cake in front of this bulletin board with the cute invite and pictures from her prior 5 birthday parties.

Little details like these m&m's made our girl smile!

I also painted "party cups" for each girl with their name on them...and they got to take them home as well.

Elise's face when she saw the table all set up was priceless! Made me so happy that she liked it!

Albertson's Bakery (the best kept secret on the Northshore) did a great job on her cake! She went with me to pick it out and was very specific (surprise, surprise)...and she was thrilled with the result. She chose chocolate cake on the inside with white icing. It was soooo delicious too!

Elise's absolute favorite food is Domino's Pizza. So, guess what was on the menu for dinner?

Then we moved on to fondue...the girls had an absolute blast with this. I think it was the hit of the party! They even climbed up on the table to keep dipping! YUM!

After fondue, we took a little food break, and those who wanted to got their toes painted. Apparently little Elise is a trendsetter (or was last night), because she chose a pattern with two colors and all of her friends wanted the same!

Green and turquoise toes! :)

Then it was time for cake...

And wishes....

And success- all SIX candles out!

The precious group!

Funny faces!

I think (and hope) that Elise had a great time! I know I had lots of fun planning the party for her, and I think she realizes how blessed she is to have sweet friends to celebrate with!

I am sure there will be much more celebrating this week with family and more friends as her birthday approaches!

6 years old....

I truly hope this upcoming year is an amazing one for her...she has so much to look forward to as she starts this next chapter of her life. Can't wait to watch her continue to grow....