Claire's Ballerina Birthday Party

Claire requested a ballerina party for her birthday, and I had so much fun planning it! There were some panic attacks in the beginning, some sleepless nights at the end, and I may never throw a party like this again ever (good thing there are pics so Claire can remember I did it once), but I am glad that I did and that my mom was here to help! My mom and I stayed up all night the night before her party, setting up, moving furniture, frosting cupcakes, and dealing with dozens of yards of tulle.

Claire got to invite 3 friends because she turned 3, but that didn't stop her from asking nearly every person she talked to (including the air conditioner repair man and grocery store clerk) if they wanted to come to her party. Our house is so tiny that the number of kids was perfect without being overwhelming, and Bryn, McKinley, and Jacob are her 3 best friends that she loves. When I asked her who she wanted to invite, she gave me those three names, and when I asked if there was anyone else, she said, "Bryn's mommy, and McKinley's mommy, and Jacob's mommy."

When Claire first walked out of the bedroom in the morning, she gasped, fell back a step, and said, "Whoa." It was one of my favorite moments! Then she got so excited, running around and yelling, "It's my party! It's my party! Did you open all my presents?"

Ballerina, pig and balloon pancakes that daddy made for Claire.

 

The Invite, idea based on this one. It's more pink than it looks, I was so happy with how it turned out. My mom was amazing with this party, and helped with so much, including the invites. I couldn't have done it all without her!

The tulle wreath, I love it! Hyrum twisted a metal hanger into a circle, then I used 3 spools of 6in wide, 25 yd tulle (white, light pink, and pink). The cute ornament I found just a few days before at my mom's friend's mom's estate sale, and it was perfect. Tutorial from here.

 The crown decorating station. I bought some foam crowns on amazon, princess stickers, and jewel stickers (you'll see the jewel stickers used for something else later). And I used this tutorial for the tulle pom poms, then hung them up with thread.

 They also got to make ribbon wands. I basically did this, but Hyrum drilled a hole rather using a thumbtack.

Party Food Table! The tulle skirt was, um, a bit more trouble than it was worth. That is 40 YARDS of tulle, people! Tutorial came from here (sounds so simple, huh?), with a few mods. We used a white plastic table cloth underneath the skirt so you couldn't see under the table, and used crepe paper along the top to hide the pins and since we didn't have any ribbon.We also did a lot of measuring so it would look even (10yds on each end, 20 in the front), and then marked the halfway point and pinned it, then marked that halfway point between the edge and the halfway point and pinned that, and so on and so forth.

 We got the idea for the backdrop from these two parties (here and here), and mom convinced me we had to do this (there were times during the process where I wished she hadn't)! We had a little photo shoot with Claire, then picked a picture, connected the computer to the TV, hung gray fabric up over the TV, and Hyrum used chalk to trace her picture lifesize. Then I cut it out and using an extreme glue stick, glued it to poster board, then cut that out (in the middle I tried interfacing, but it looked awful and I ended up peeling it off). I got the birthday banner and all the plates/cups/napkins etc here.

A few of the contenders

 We served Claire's favorite snacks- cheese, crackers, olives, popcorn, and various fruit.

 These pictures just don't do justice to how cute the cupcakes were (and the color is off). Idea for the leotards came from here, and my mom helped me make them about a week and a half before the party (out of gum paste). I loved them so much!

  

Here is a better pics of the leotards before we put them on the cupcakes.

 Used this template for the popcorn cups, but it was too small, so I enlarged it. I already had this scrapbook paper, and they were just the right colors.

 

Chocolate covered marshmallows. Claire sees these all the time and always wants one, but since she's allergic to food dye, she can never have them. So I found these square marshmallows at Whole Foods that didn't have any blue dye, and then made my own sprinkles using this recipe (but I used either agave or honey instead of corn syrup, and dyed water with beets or blueberries instead of milk) and colored sugar by dripping a few drops of dyed liquid into a baggie of sugar and shaking it. Then, instead of making them into dots, I made lines like from this blog, then crumpled them up when it was dry. The white chocolate ones really didn't taste that good (why is it even called chocolate if there is no cocoa in it?) but they were cute, so I'm ok with that. I used beet powder for everything pink (leotards, frosting, sprinkles, milk, chocolate).

Strawberry milk, idea was at many ballerina parties that I found, but I used this recipe for homemade syrup (tip, don't try to multiply the recipe). One blog I found said that the kids didn't like the strawberry milk (but maybe homemade is better, I haven't had the powder stuff for years), so I put it next to some regular milk just in case but all 4 kids LOVED it. Jacob inhaled his in about 30 seconds. It wasn't quite pink enough, so we added some beet powder for a little more color.

 I hired a teenage girl from our church to come as a ballerina (she isn't a real ballerina) and I am so glad I did, she was amazing! Seriously, perfect, probably the best party decision I made. She arrived, in character, with small bunches of flowers for the kids (you can see them holding the flowers in some of the pics) and some books to read. She also gave the birthday girl a tiara. She was so sweet, and the kids loved it. You can see the mirror that I set up in front of the fireplace. Can't have a ballerina party without a mirror, right? They all loved dancing in front of it.

 This picture cracks me up because it looks like Claire's leg is on backwards.

 Opening presents. Claire's gifts were all PERFECT for her. She got a tea set, because she always plays with her friend Bryn's at her house, a ballerina jewelry music box, some ballerina plates and bowls, and a ballerina magnetic dress up doll. She loves all of them so much!

 

 Claire's extra use of leftover jewel stickers, on Hyrum's computer (she also put a few on my computer, a bunch on the mirror, a few on various people's body parts, and all over the floor).

Happy Birthday my sweet little Ballerina! We  love you so much!

Claire's Third Birthday

It seems so normal that Claire is 3 now; she talks so well that people have been assuming she's 3 for months and 2 just sounds so young. She seems too old for 2, but at the same time, 3 sounds so big! When she woke up, I told her that it was her birthday and she was three now, and she got a little sad and said, "But I want to be 2." Haha, I finally convinced that 3 was better, and she's been telling us "I'm a big girl!" whenever she wants to do something by herself. We planned a really fun day for Claire on her actual birthday. In the morning, we went to a little kid amusement park with some of her friends and she loved it! We went on rides, ate lunch, fed the ducks, and then went on more rides. Daddy is usually the official chaperone for rides, and I wish he had been there because I had to make her stop riding a few of the rides because they were making me so sick! I'm glad she didn't get my weak stomach. Whenever someone would ask what her favorite ride was, she'd yell "the roller coaster!", we went several times in a row before I got too sick. She'd throw her little hands up in the air and scream happily. It gave me whiplash (neck still hurts) but she was in Heaven. She went on the airplane ride after our friends left, but she really wanted to ride with a friend, so she sat behind a random little boy and I could see them chatting away the entire ride. She kept asking later, "Where's my somebody? He's got curly hair." You can see him next to her in the Frog Hopper picture.


We were there all afternoon, then came home and went swimming with some different friends (not for her birthday, just a get together). There were 3 of my friends from church, with a total of 11 kids and 4 adults. Someone at the pool asked if we were having a party, and Claire yelled, "It's my birthday!" She told people all week long, and even got extra stickers at Trader Joe's because of it (which she proceeded to share with everyone whether they liked it or not). That night she requested homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner and we ate some mini chocolate cupcakes. She also opened some presents from us and MoMo. She LOVES the play cupcakes and cookies, and has been playing with them constantly. It was a great day!

 Claire wanted to wear this bow in her hair, like Minnie Mouse.

Sweet Claire, then crazy Claire. She is saying, "Plie...Straighten!"



She had the vision and hearing tests at the doctor the day after her birthday. She is about 37 inches tall and 32 lbs.