charlotte turns six // a birthday celebration

My youngest decided on a My Little Pony party for her birthday this year.  She is especially fond of Rainbow Dash, and any excuse that I have to use color in my decorating, I am on board.  I try really  hard to make their birthdays special, after all they only come around once a year.  Party planning is also one of my love languages - I really come alive when I get to recreate Pinterest finds, or decorate a cake of my own design.

I planned the party for the mid-afternoon so that I didn't have to provide lunch or dinner.  This can get expensive, and it is always hard to have a birthday party so close to Christmas.  I made the cake, some candy-dipped wafers that I discovered on Pinterest and the kids could choose either Sprite or water.  The drinks were offered in clear cups and I had made rainbow ice cubes for the drinks.  They absolutely loved them!

I try to keep their parties short, because attention spans are the same way, and when kids get bored they start exploring your house.  Even the off-limit areas.  They like to jump on couches and they like to look on cabinets.  It also helps to have a fun party activity for them to enjoy, and when you tie this in to the "main event" i.e. cake and ice cream, its even better!  I decided to go with make your own ice cream sundaes.  This was a big hit, and I think each child used a half pound of sprinkles on their ice cream.  When you add hot fudge, caramel topping, maraschino cherries, and whipped cream, you really can't go wrong.  

I also try to minimize cost by only providing a small favor for the guests to take home.  I know my kids love going to parties where they bring home a big bag of stuff, but most of it gets broken, used, or forgotten about in a couple days and I think that a small little gift ends up being more meaningful than a big bag of goodies.  I bought a bag of rainbow Twizzlers and made "Rainbow Dash tails".  I actually didn't even see this on Pinterest, it just came to me as I started to put the bags together.  I love when things like that happen!

I really do love the planning part of a party, especially when there's a fun theme!  However, the best part of any party is if the guests, and especially the birthday girl, enjoy themselves!  I think everyone had a great time!