Springtime in Paris Party

Kate's birthday is actually in June but the end of school year schedule this year is beyond complicated because both boys are "graduating" or moving on to new schools.  Also, in our HOT climate a lot of people leave during the summer.  So we celebrated Kate's birthday about a month early.

I LOVE making all these decorations for her parties.  On a day to day basis, I am not really crafty but I have had so much fun working on little projects for Kate's parties the last few years.  I wish I had discovered this side of myself when the boys were young.

I know there are a billion photos in this post but oh well...this is probably our last party like this and I want it all documented for Kate.  We have no other scrapbooks.

The art table where all the girls got to be a French artiste.




My Mom was a big help making the croissant sandwiches:)

Kate was so excited when her friends started to arrive....





Once the girls arrived, they had a few activities to choose from.

One of the activities was making a beaded necklace or bracelet...





I had some wonderful teens help out at all the activities.

They all made Spring paintings....









I thought they created beautiful masterpieces!!!

The girls also had their nails painted by some teens but I did not get many photos of that...



One of the high school girls was a fabulous face painter.  She did french poodles, fluer de lis, eifflel  towers etc...





Kate got a fleur de lis on her arm and a design on her face...





Then we played pin the tail on the french poodle.  Our sweet friend and neighbor, Kyle drew the poodle for us and Kate made the tail:)












After that, we had lunch (croissant sandwiches, mixed berry fruit salad and sparkling french pink lemonade) and cake/cupcakes...









Kate, Harry and Mimi (my Mom)

I LOVE that Harry sat down and shared a seat with Kate.
 {Unfortunately,Will was at his future high school for some placement testing}



I know ...out of focus but too cute to leave out:)  Kate ADORES her Habu!!!



Harry was a big helper as always. Some of his friends even dropped by to say hello and have a cupcake...









After the cake, the girls made Eiffel Towers out of marshmallows and toothpicks (thanks for the idea Bagel!)

I want to add that although this looks like a lot--- I did this party on a pretty low budget.  I started looking for things a few months ahead and bought everything on sale or with 50% off coupons at Michael's and Hobby Lobby.  I got the art canvases on sale for half price at Aaron Brother's framing.  The cake was a super deal.  I took the photo to one bakery and they quoted me a price of $120!  I said no thank you.  Then,  I took it to my local Kroger grocery store and they did it for $30!!!!  And because I am a little anti-goody bag, I did not have them.  The girls all took home their bracelets or necklaces and canvas paintings as their party favors:) I only share this so you know that this was very doable for someone on a budget with advance planning and some coupon clipping/printing (I get the Michael's coupons on-line).  

Are y'all as exhausted as me after that post?  That took forever to post!!!  Thank you for all the get well thoughts.  I am still sick.  I have some kind of virus and am in bed in my jammies with my laptop doing this 3 hour long post.  I definitely had too much on my plate the last 2 weeks and it caught up to me.  I think I am going to go juice now and then sit out in the sun for some vitamin D. Hopefully, that will help to kick this crud!

Have a GREAT weekend!