Peg Street Place: March 2010

I love to plan and organize parties and get togethers. I usually get in way over my head and try to do too much myself. Luckily, I have amazing friends that know this about me and usually end up bailing me out.

My oldest turned 6 at the beginning of the month. We decided to have an "Alice in Wonderland" themed party. Or I should say I convinced her to have this kind of party. It just so happened that my bookclub was reading the book and the new Tim Burton movie was being released the eve of her party. We spent the month hunting through thrift stores and dollar stores for dishes, decorations, and party supplies.

For the decor- I set up 2 tables with mismatched china, colorful napkins and plastic ware. We tied balloons onto the chairs. One of my good friends loaned us a darling handmade flag-banner that we hung on the walls. We placed some fun hats (that Amy made) around the room. I wrote each child's name on a playing card and used it as a place setting card. We also invited all the kids to where a fun hat or dress as a character from the book.

Birthday activities included an "Alice in Wonderland" obstacle course, "Follow the White Rabbit" (the kids took turns playing the rabbit and leading the other kids around the yard to music), a treasure hunt (they took turns hunting for different items: a white glove, a rabbit, a red rose, playing card, teapot, etc), and finally a pinata. For the first time ever, we had beautiful weather for our party. The kids loved playing the games outdoors and my house stayed a little cleaner.

The kids sat down at the "tea party" and ate lunch. I went a little overboard on the cake. I attempted to make Kaitlyn a topsy turvy cake. You can see the pictures below. My mother is a wonderful cake decorator, but lives in SC. I do not possess any of her skills. And since my mom was unable to offer any demonstrations, I turned to "Youtube" for guidance. The cake turned out a little funny, but it tasted really good. I made my own buttercream and fondant icing. We also made a bunch of cupcakes (those were by backup incase my cake failed).

For parting gifts: I bought "Lofthouse" Sugar cookies from the bakery (I was done baking) and wrote "EAT ME" on the cookies and then wrapped them individually in cellophane treat bags and tied with a ribbon. I also bought those cute mini sodas and tied a tag that said "DRINK ME". We basically sugared up the kids and then sent them home with their parents. I'm sure they all really appreciated it. All in all, it was a really fun party and my daughter adored it.