My sweet little God daughter Tara turned 4 today, and she had the most wonderful, most pink and purple, most princess-y party ever! From the moment we walked in the door it was magical. My friend Heather decorated the entrance with streamers, and the loot table, signs for any little girl of wonderful things to come! It also had the first activity, decorate your own tiara.

There were lots of princess activities to keep everyone busy at the party. There was a castle set up to play dolls at.

There was a playdough kitchen, with princess cookie cutters for some pretend baking.

There was also a game of pin the crown on the princess.

One of my favourite activities, and one of all the kids favourites too, based on the line up at one point, was the cookie decorating. Heather made princess cookies, and the kids decorated them with icing and candies.

Here’s the sweet birthday girl hard at work!

The main attraction was that the living room had been transformed into a princess beauty shop.

I love the garland of pink feather boas, mini lights, roses, and crystals, along with the pink mirrors so the little princesses could admire themselves! There were lots of beautiful princess gowns to wear.

There was also a princess vanity set up with heart sparkle nail polish, and glitter hairspray.

The little princesses were treated to having their make-up done by a great face-painter who did everything from princesses and fairies to royal tigers and kitty cats!

Here’s Maddie with the tiara she made, smiling with the birthday girl.

After all that fun, the kids enjoyed a snack fit for a princess!

Each chair was decorated with ribbon, tulle and a princess brooch -from the dollar store, oh how we love the dollar store especially when we need a little sparkle!

The clock was set to Cinderella time, and Heather decorated with these fun tulle pom-poms.

Each place setting was set with a silver paper doily place mat, cutlery decked out with jewel stickers, a princess wand, a rose, and lollipop ring.

On the menu were individual pink pudding with cookie spoons, pink popcorn, and beautiful cupcakes. There were also chocolate dipped marshmallows with pink and purple sugar sprinkles, and little castle and crown jam and cream cheese sandwiches.

Isn’t the fruit cute on these little pink skewers.

There was also a sweet princess cake, decorated with the a fun “4″ sparkler candle!

We had such a fun time being princesses for a day!

Happy Birthday Tara, the sweetest princess of all!

This post is linked up at Between Naps on the Porch, Whipperberry, and Tatertots and Jello.

Long, long ago, before I had a blog and still took pictures of people at parties, instead of decor, my baby girl Maddie turned one and we had a cupcake themed birthday party to celebrate. There aren’t a lot of pictures of all the fun cupcake details from this party, but there is one shot I would like to share with you, our cupcake buffet.

I made chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter and coconut cupcakes. There was chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, mocha and cream cheese frosting. For toppings there was chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, sugar, coconut, smarties, peanut butter cups, chocolate covered espresso beans, crushed Oreos, gummy worms, cherries, and strawberries.

Along with all these options, the menu included some “House Recommendations” for how to combine them:

Everyone loved creating their own signature cupcakes, and I highly recommend a cupcake buffet for any party.

I can’t believe my little cupcake is already 4 going on 5!

Well, the highlight of a picnic is certainly the food! I love how all the details turned out. The individual picnic lunches were packed in red paper bags, with some sweet red gingham tissue paper, and tied with a little twine. I customized the bags with these labels I created.

It was so fun watching everyone excitedly unpack their picnic bags to see what was in them -including the grown-ups!

So here’s the menu:

• Fried Chicken
• Potato Chips
• Veggies and Dip or Bean Salad
• An Apple
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Cupcake-in-a-Jar

Let’s start with the chicken, I purchased chicken the night before, and wrapped in up with waxed tissue paper, tied with twine, and marked with labels I made to fit our theme.

The kettle cooked potato chips were re-packaged in cello bags, with a custom label.

I made veggies and dip for the kids, packaged in cello bags, with a small container of dip, and tied with twine. The grown-ups had three bean salad, served in mini-mason jars.

For something sweet, we made chocolate chip cookies, and packaged them in little brown paper bags, closed with the custom labels.

Our best treat was the cupcake-in-a-jar, and a great portable way to celebrate a birthday!

We made vanilla cupcakes, and cut them in half, then we spread the bottom half with a little raspberry jam, and layered it in the bottom of the mason jar.

Then we piped in some pink frosting, and added the top of the cupcake. It was also iced, and we added some pink sanding sugar on top.

They were delicious, and the kids loved digging into all that icing!

Our friends and family weren’t bothered by having to move our beach picnic indoors due to cold windy weather, and laid out the picnic blankets in our dinning room and living room!

Before the birthday girl dug into her cupcake we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her.

With a picnic -inside or out -life really is a party!

Don’t miss these other picnic party posts:

• The Picnic: Part II -The Activities
• The Picnic: Part I -The Decor
• The Picnic Invitations

This post is linked up at Home is Where My Story Begins, Tatertots and Jello, Whipperberry, Simply Designing, and Between Naps on the Porch.

We had some great activities planned for our beach picnic, so I thought I’d share.

Our loot bags were sand pails. We couldn’t find any pink metal sand pails, but we did find these pink plant pots at IKEA. We drilled holes in the side, and sanded them with a metal file. Then we added thick sisal rope and tied it to create the handle.

I found some pink shovels, and filled the pail with other beach treats.

We were planning on a sand castle building contest, so we included these fun flags, made with bamboo skewers, fabric and my trusty glue gun! The birthday girl’s favourite candy is Carmel squares, so we added some in these sweet organza bags. I tried to co-ordinate all the labels, including this one for bubbles.

My favourite part of the loot bags, were these sea shell tic-tac-toe games that we made. I spray painted sea shells in pink and red, and then packaged them in cello bags, with a label instructing the guests to create their grid in the sand and have fun!

I set up the loot bags on the kitchen table with a cute picnic table cloth. My mom brought the beautiful roses from her garden, and we added some of the cute flags, to the mason jar vase.

My mother-in-law found some fun pink beach balls that fit with our theme, and mermaid dolls for the little girls to play with in their sand castles. Thanks Grandma!

We were planning on having a sand castle building contest at the beach. I found some fun trophies at the dollar store, and added some pink and red ribbon, and some labels for the winning sand castles. We divided the guests up into family teams and awarded each family a trophy for the Sandiest Sand Castle, the Cutest Sand Castle, the Biggest Sand Caste, and the Most Beautiful Sand Castle.

We had to change our plans a little since we were inside due to the cold, windy weather at the beach, so we drew pictures of the the sand castles instead, which everyone was a really good sport about.

Going up next…Part III -The Food (the best part!)

This weekend was my daughter’s seventh birthday, and she wanted to have a beach picnic to celebrate. Unfortunately, the weather was cold and windy, so we had to move the party from the beach to indoors. No one seemed to mind though, and we all had a great time!

I had planned all the food, decor and activities for the beach, but when we felt the cold wind, we quickly shifted things around to work at home. You saw the bunting flag invite yesterday, which was inspired by the bunting flags I made for the picnic. I made some simple bunting flag before with with pinking sheers and ribbon, but this time I made them double sided, ironed them and used seam binding along the top. They look much more professional, and I’m really pleased with how they turned out. They were a lot more work, but it shows.

We also had some fun red and pink balloon bouquets.

We set the picnic food up in the dinning room. I found this great vintage table cloth at an antique store this summer, and fell in love with it. I used these sweet miniature picnic baskets for decoration on the food table too.

For the centre piece of the table I used these sweet mason jars filled with flowers from my mom’s garden. I also found a gold picture frame and spray painted it pink, and added a picture of the birthday girl. I found the sweet hot pink “P” -for Paige, at Hobby Lobby -love those cross border shopping trips.

Each guest had an individual picnic bag, the adults were on the left, and the kids were on right. Around the back of the table I set up the drinks.

I had fun finding old fashioned pop bottles of cream soda, black cherry, root beer and coke. For the kids there were Kool-Aid Jammers, and lots of water for everyone. I used a mason jar to hold some striped straws. We also had a picnic basket filled with red picnic blankets, that I picked up at IKEA.

I had also planned a coffee and tea station for the grown-ups, since the party started at 11. We planned on using thermos flasks for the beach, but since it was at home I just set this basket I’d prepared next to the coffee maker.

Stay tuned for Part II -the activities, and Part III -the food!

This post is linked up at these great linky parties, check them out for lots more inspiration: Someday Crafts, Blue Cricket Design, Between Naps on the Porch, and Today’s Creative Blog.