Butterfly Party

Last year Keziah and I agreed on a fun rainbow theme for her birthday party which was a big hit and a lot of fun to put together.  This year I was inspired by some simple-looking cupcakes that I found on Pinterest and convinced Keziah to do a butterfly-themed party.

First I found a butterfly template online, cut it out and traced it onto folded cardstock to create the invitations. 

I had some supplies laying around from my old scrapbooking days, so I printed the cover words onto white card stock, punched them with a flower-shaped punch and then attached them with the brads.  Not fancy card-making genius by any means - but cute (and simple!)

Then I printed the party details on more white card stock and adhered them inside the invitations.

The morning of Keziah's birthday I wanted her to have a celebratory wake-up.  It worked out great since the boys usually get up around 6 am (they all share a room in case you've forgotten) but Keziah sleeps until 7:30.  I had plenty of time to make this balloon garland.  She was a little sleepy-eyed and groggy when she discovered it but I think it served it's purpose of welcoming her to an exciting day...

After she took a few minutes to wake up she promptly gathered some of her favourite-ist treasures and created a birthday shrine for herself on the kitchen table.

(This is soo very Keziah-ish...)

After she went off to school I replaced it with some butterfly decor in anticipation of her party (which was still a couple of days away).   I found the foliage around the farm and added some dollar store butterflies.

I found lilac branches that were already budding for the butterflies to perch on.  And - wouldn't you know it - we still have flowers in November!  (Erik's mom thinks these little purple flowers are alyssum).

I also used the same invitation template to create some butterfly garland to hang above the table.  

Then, Saturday came and it was party day.  I couldn't help but get Keziah a new dress for the occasion when I saw this one at Superstore...

When the guests arrived we gave them each a pair of "butterfly wings" to wear ($1.25 each from Dollarama).  Then I had 2 crafts planned to keep 6 little girls and 3 little boys busy.  The first was a simple craft of tissue paper and pipe cleaners.

For the second craft I gave the kids each a clothes-pin to decorate and told them that we were making caterpillars, but that by the end of the party they would turn into butterflies.  Later, while the kids were in the other room I clipped on the candy bags as the butterfly wings.  

I planned a couple of party games - our favourites are hot potato dress-up (take an item from the dress-up bin when it's your turn until everyone is dressed up all crazy) and the present unwrapping game (layers of wrapping paper with a gift inside that can be shared by all {more candy, of course!})

Then it was time for cupcakes... 

The cupcakes were my main inspiration for the party - an idea that I found here.  The Martha Stewart version is much more pretty in pastel, but I let Keziah choose the icing colours from this very fun and helpful chart so we ended up with more vibrant butterflies.  The wings are made from yogurt-covered pretzels, some dots of pink icing for the body, a smartie head and licorice antennae (sidenote: it's not easy to find shoe string licorice - let alone black or dark purple to match the picture - so I ended up using a red pull-and-peel twizzler).

The cupcakes were thoroughly enjoyed by all...

I commented to Erik that this group of girls was sooo much louder than they were last year.  I nearly lost my voice by the end of the 2 hours.  I ended up shipping them outside near the end of the party because there was a whole lotta noise and energy going on in our tiny house.

I breathed a sigh of relief when it was all over.  And I think we had one happy little party girl.

One birthday down, one more to go!