A Royal Affair...

Celebrating our 8 year old Princess

It has taken me a week to get all of Claudia's birthday pictures organized and prepared for blogging. I didn't want to leave any out so I made collages to showcase her special day. Here's Claudia the morning of her party just as she and I were leaving for the Family Life Center. I was tickled over and over with our decision to not have it at home. What a blessing to have a "venue" for her party! Claudia was so excited all week about her party.

Our Birthday Girl

Our Family

I do not know what I would have done without Amy and Izzy. First, Amy came on Friday and helped me set up and think through the layout. She is a bit obsessive over details which may or may not be why we get along so well...we have a few things in common. Then she and Izzy came early and helped finish all the little things! Izzy also helped detour Claudia from asking me how many more minutes until her friends arrived! That is just the beginning of naming how Amy helped me.




Can you say master cake designer? Yes, once again, my sweet Amy came through and cooked up this masterpiece for us. It was exactly what I would have designed if I had any iota how to design a cake! She took my sketchy description/vision and brought out this beloved hunk of yumminess! I mean it was DELICIOUS! You can almost smell the chocolate just looking at the pictures! Wow! Amy, you are amazing! I just hope she does not kill me when she is swimming in cake orders.


Finally, from cakes to cameras, Amy has my back! Did I mention we also have the same obsession with wanting to be photographers when we grow up? I just handed over my BFF and she took care of business from beginning to end. I never thought about getting great shots because I knew she would rock my world with what she came up with...and she did!

Everyone needs a friend like Amy!

Craft Extravaganza for the Crafting Queen

As we planned the party, Claudia knew all along we were painting pumpkins. What she didn't know was I had a few tricks up my sleeve. One she had to find out early b/c she was with me when I hit Hobby Lobby and had to buy the Christmas balls. I had ordered bottle cap necklace kits from Etsy and was able to keep them a secret until we were putting it all out on party day. Needless to say, I had one happy girl! This little one loves to make a craft! She and I were both so excited about the crafts and it turned out to be a great party idea. All of the girls loved making each craft and getting to take so much home. This is our craft area all ready for the giggles...

Party Decorations

Finally, here they come!

We covered each girl's pretty clothes with make-do smocks and let them get to work. We started with the ornaments. They had pink and lime shredded paper to stuff inside and paint for decorating. We finished each one off with a pink ribbon and now they are all ready for Christmas!



Next came the pumpkins! What fun! I really wanted to paint one myself but I was to busy!

An ALL GIRL party for our GIRLY GIRL!

One thing I love about Claudia is her love for her friends. She has so many sweet friends and she loves them all so much. As I watched these sweet girls interact, I was overwhelmed with thanksgiving for God giving her such great friends. They are a sweet bunch of girls. Mixed in age and grade but they all are so sweet to each other.

When you are the birthday girl, you can

HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO!

Another craft was to make momento for Claudia. Each girl wrote her a birthday note and we put them in a small photo album. Amy took her picture with each girl so I can put those beside each one's note. Claudia is sure to treasure this for the rest of her life!

Dear Claudia...

Every Southern girl loves her monogram...

Each girl made a bottle cap necklace to take home. The ribbons and bottle caps were pink and each girl had a brown giraffe print w/their initial to put on top. They loved the necklaces and I was so happy I had added this as our last craft.

What is fun for the little brother at the girly girl party?

Tearing up the wrapping paper, that's what!

I was proud of Claudia when she opened her gifts because she was genuinely delighted with each one. I so want my children to learn and have thankfulness for the things they have and are blessed to receive. It made my heart happy to see Claudia express appreciation for her gifts.

It was a beautiful day to celebrate our sweet girl. I think Claudia and I both agreed this was our favorite party ever. I used to love the Fall Festival in the backyard but this was a more intimate setting. Last year I realized I had not been enjoying Claudia at her party, I had just been working the parties. I loved how I got to enjoy her when we did Build-A-Bear so I wanted this year to also provide a way for Chad and I to truly spend time with her and enjoy her. Mission was accomplished! I really felt like I was with her the whole time and not just running the entire time. Those are memories I want to make and ones I will treasure!