Painting Party In the Trees

Monday was Beatrice's 3rd birthday party. Her birthday is today, but with all of the other festivities happening, I decided to celebrate with our friends at the first of the week. 

Let me just say that I hate hosting parties. I get very stressed out about little details and have a hard time making decisions. I procrastinate prepping until the last minute and make myself crazy with finishing everything. The whole thing makes me anxious, but I would never dream of not throwing my girl a party. So I did, and it was great.

Beatrice is really into painting so I had the brilliant plan of having a painting party under the shade tree in our yard. I bought little wooden birdhouses at the craft store and bought little palettes of paint for each child. I also ordered painting smocks the kids could wear during the party and take home as favors. 

 

The kids were into the painting for about, oh, 10 minutes. Then they were over it. In my mind, they would be happily occupied with creating their birdhouse masterpieces for hours so I didn't plan any other activities. Party fail. We spent the duration of the party eating, opening gifts, and watching the kids run around the yard.

If you haven't guessed it, it was a costume party. There was Ariel, Cinderella, Merida, Mary's Little Lamb, Batman, Captain America, and a munchkin ballerina. 

Originally I wanted to have the party inside, but I decided it probably wasn't a great idea to have a bunch of kids with paint inside my house. So, I got up early (I watched the sun come up over the Pacific!) to make the outdoors a little more special. I hung 15 pale pink balloons from the tree limbs at different heights. I weighted them with gum balls so they would hang low. Beatrice loved them. I did too. 

 

The party was at lunchtime so I made hot ham and cheese sandwiches, pesto orzo salad, pineapple, and cupcakes. It was yummy and easy. 

A few things didn't pan out like I imagined, but Beatrice and her friends had fun so in the end, those things didn't matter. I'm glad our girl got to celebrate turning the big 3 with her friends.