The little miss loves her educo kitchen set. For her birthday she received a few additions: a mixer to whip up some cupcakes like her mama, and a toaster to make some breakfast for her dad. The trouble is, there just isn't enough counter space.
The solution?
One tall white storage box, a mini spring rod, and some cute fabric for a curtain.
Presto!
The kitchen renovation is complete in under and hour!
My nails were dressed for the occasion. They are starting to chip as I mop and clean up from the party and try to figure out what to do with the extra cones and twenty pounds of rainbow sprinkles.
I always start with a vision, make a plan and hope that it all comes together just as I imagined.
As for this party, I was definitely thrown some obstacles: not finding rainbow sprinkles until three days before the party, having the wrong size cones, not being able to find Fluff in Portland to make Stacie's magic frosting and using another brand resulting in wasted time and really, really bad frosting and a mad rush to come up with AND frost the sixty cupcakes I made. So much for my vision of them actually looking like soft serve; there wasn't enough time or frosting to do so and it took a wonderful friend to remind me that no one really likes that much frosting anyway and to just "let it go", these would be cute little dwarfed ice cream cones.
She was right.
I was so lucky that she came to help me because even though I awoke at 6am, I was running out of time. I realized it is very hard to pull together a birthday party for your two year old and still give her the attention she deserves on her special day. When our fabulous babysitter arrived early I was very excited to see her. One hour left with a whole lot of decorating and fighting with the wind. Crepe paper streamers and wind do not mix. Guests arrived, I was still setting up. I didn't take photos and didn't really want to because things were not looking like I had planned. I'm a psycho about this. At least I can admit it.
It was a whirlwind. Eight kids+ twenty-five adults and two infants= a bit chaotic, at least for me running all over the place. It wasn't until some of our guests had parted that I actually had a chance to sit down, relax and enjoy the company of our friends that remained.
I do this to myself, I know! I want to make things by hand and have it "perfect".
The thing is, when I saw Clementine enjoying her party, happy as a bowl of vanilla ice cream covered in rainbow sprinkles, I realized that she doesn't care if it's perfect; actually, to her it IS perfect.
THAT is the most important thing.
A rainbow sprinkle party for the little miss.
Yes, rainbow sprinkle notebooks!
I had a vision of binding small notebooks of plain paper for each of the kids as part of the party favor. The cover would obviously reflect our colorful theme. I wasn't sure exactly how much that would cost but while browsing the back to school section I found a deal I couldn't resist: composition books for 40 cents. I'm pretty sure I couldn't beat that.
Enter 8.5 x 11 prints of my rainbow sprinkle photo, xtreme glue stick, and x-acto knife. Using the glue stick I covered the entire surface of the front and back cover of the composition book and then placed my printed page on top, pressing firmly to make sure it was attached at the very edges. I then cut off the excess paper with the sharp blade.
I had planned on using colored duck tape over the black binding but as it turned out, that glue worked really well and I liked how it looked with the white border and the black. Great! Less work!
Just like that this plain old composition book has been transformed into table decoration and party favor!
When asked what she wanted for her birthday, Clementine replied "Cake and hats."
Easy enough! Does that mean we should return the tricycle?
What's a party without hats?
I took a picture of a bunch of rainbow sprinkles and printed it out on heavier weight paper. Instead of starting from scratch and getting my own cardboard and elastic, I opted for the time saving route of using store bought hats. Deconstruction and reconstruction! I traced the shape, cut it out and then glued it to the hat. To make them a bit more festive I added the garland around the base with some hot glue.
Hats? Check!
Now for the (cup)cake...
Thanks to a little help from the mister and his photoshop skills my vision is complete! Hurray!
Yes, probably should've started this project a week ago. Oh well! I really do love rainbow sprinkles.
