Butterfly Birthday Party

Yesterday was Sophia's 5th Birthday Party.

We did a triple birthday party with two of our friends from our church, who's birthdays fell on the same week.

I made the invitation above on MS Publisher, using free digital scrapbooking elements I'd collected over the past few years. Then I saved as a .jpg, and sent it to CVS to get 4 by 6 prints. Love the glossy effect and the quality. Plus they were free with signup online.

the birthday girls with their wings on

As guests arrived, we passed out these wings to wear, they were one of the favors. Hooray for the dollar store Halloween costumes!

Last week we cut out 50 or so butterflies from scrapbooking paper, then the day of the party the kids stuck them all over the walls. It was a great job for the kids while we hung up decorations. And I realized just how much wall space I have as they decorated the foyer and living room and kitchen area....we could have easily had three times as many. For full effect, it would be fun to do the butterflies in a line across the walls in waves.



Here's a shot of the decorations of the kitchen and living room. I put up my girly banners from the baby shower last year, Happy Birthday banner and we made additional pom poms. (Half of them fell by the time the party was over, which added an element of surprise).


As the kids came in, we passed out wings and had them decorate paper bags with more scrapbook butterflies and tissue paper cut to look like grass. I got this idea from martha stewart, but her idea was a bit more polished (but then again, it was made by editors, not 5 year olds). They liked it.




Then the games begin.
First up: Freeze dance. We used the Nutcracker soundtrack.

Second: Caterpillar, Caterpillar, Butterfly. (duck duck goose basically).

Third: Was supposed to be elefun , with paper butterflies. But mine were too big and heavy. So I tried to have them fly off my hand from a huge house fan. Um. FAIL. The butterflies flew about 6 inches from my hand, resulting in a massive 5 year old pile of hands and bags. So I just threw them in the air. Worked great. All two minutes of it. If you try this, practice first.




Then we made a craft (of course, this is a crafty house, remember?)

The kids colored wooden butterflies or flowers, then they were hot glued to a clothespin, and a self adhesive magnet attached to the back. Voila! Paper clip for the fridge. Wide possibilities for this craft- attach glitter, or use markers, use whatever shape fits your party, whatever magnet's you've got. By the way, wooden shapes go on sale 5/$1 at Michael's every couple weeks.



Alisha did face painting, in case you noticed, and then the kids played outside while we got the cake ready.

Oh the cake! Another post on that coming shortly. (HERE IT IS!)


Pretzel butterflies were also served, modeled after pretzel butterfly cupcakes from Martha Stewart. Alisha did ganache for the bodies, some with marshmallow for our allergy kids. Big hit.



We sang Happy Birthday, blew out the candles (notice natalie helping), ate some cake, and played outside.

The girls took home their decorated bags, their magnet craft, a set of wings, and the scrapbook paper butterflies they caught during the butterfly game.

All in all, all our plans happened with only a few hiccups, the kids were extremely well behaved, a triple party is definitely less work overall, and we had a ton of fun.

Happy Birthday Sophia!