Phoebe's Arty Party Part I

I decided to break the big Art Party up into two different posts since I had a photo booth and most of my photos came from there. I'll try to get those posted tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm sharing the photos from the actual party. I didn't take as many of all my decorations like I usually do. I think I was too busy at the photo booth.

I used the paper chain idea again. I think it's my new favorite decorating technique. Sure it takes a bit of time, but it's cheap and packs a punch. Phoebe and Eli actually put most of this one together. I just used a package of construction paper. The tissue fans were ordered HERE because they had the right color combos.

I didn't get a good photo of the table I set up the living room to be party central. I used four card tables and lined them up white paper tablecloths and a roll of wrapping paper from Target for a pop of color.

This is where we did all our art. I had one of those ceramic figurines that you get cheap at Hobby Lobby for them to do when they got to the party...while I wasn't snapping their photos at the photo booth. A few kiddos had to take them home unfinished because it's pretty common for people to arrive at our house late for an event because we live so far out of town.

Then we did some multi-media art. I found 12 x 12 canvases on sale in packets of two at Michaels. I had all kinds of goodies to collage with, feathers, loofahs, sponges, straws, and a variety of paint brushes.  Most of the canvases just turned out grey since they used all the different colors!

I don't have a good photo of the cake table, either, since I used my kitchen table and it was backlit. Oh, and guess who forgot to roll the wrapping paper along this table.

We had veggies with ranch, pita chips with spinach dip, fruit k-bobs, fried mozzarella bites with marinara, colorful popcorn, punch (in THESE jars), and cake.

Oh my, the cake!

I admit, I was pretty darn proud of my cake. I'm not a great baker and I'm even worse at decorating. (You should have seen the ugliest cupcakes I took for Phoebe's snack yesterday for her birthday!) But this one turned out exactly as I had planned. Well, except for the fact that I had intended to make big, colorful dots with the icing, but I ran out. So I improvised with sprinkles.

And it was tall! Seven inches!  Phoebe was very impressed.

The colored popcorn was a big hit, too. I know there's a link on Pinterest, but I was lazy and just bought it from the popcorn place in the mall.  And I way overbought!  I sent home lots and lots of popcorn with the party guests. I think I should also mention that all the food was thought up by Phoebe (well, except for the pita chips and spinach dip...I figured we needed something savory with all that sweetness) hence the inclusion of fried mozzarella bites which necessitated the buying of a Fry Daddy.  Oh yes, I've become one of "those" people who owns a Fry Daddy.

Again with the badly lit photo, but it's still sweet. She loved her cake and was so excited for her friends to see that even though it was white cake, the layers were all different colors!

Getting ready to blow out the candles. The lighting is better here.

Here's the inside of the cake. I wish the green layer had been more of a lime green than a forest green since it was so close to the color of the blue layer. Oh well. It was still the most spectacular cake I've ever made.

This was one of my favorite parties to put together. Then again, I think I say that about all my parties. Brad was impressed, too, and asked why I never throw him a birthday party like that. I told him that adult parties intimidate me because I'm not cool enough to know what normal, fun adults would want to do. Kid parties are a lot easier. They are so much easier to please. :)

Happy Leap Year! Anyone doing anything creative or special this Leap Year?