****Warning- This post has an excessive amount of photos****
Emerson's birthday party was a fall festival theme. The theme started out as an alternative to a halloween-themed party (since her bday is so close to the 31st). There are so many cute things that you can do with a festival theme. I took the cute theme and literally ran with it...things got seriously carried away, but it turned out super cute.
The fall festival theme was super easy to come up with acitivites for the kids. We had crafts, face painting, bean bag toss, a ball pit and the sandbox and swingset were open for playing. There were about 16 kids, 3 and under, there. They all seemed to have fun.
Decorating with the theme was fun. We got lots of pumpkins and bales of hay. The hay proved to be useful in covering up the wet ground from the flood issues we had dealt with earlier in the week. We scattered one of the bales around the yard and it looked really great.
The party started at 4pm which is when Emerson wakes up from her nap. I woke her up a little early to get her dressed and try to prepare her for what was about to happen. Afterall, her backyard had been transformed and she had never seen so many people at our house before.
Walking outside, she was a little hesitant at first. I had to hold her for the first 20 minutes or so. After that she seemed to realize that she knew everyone there and things must be okay. I got her a juice box and some popcorn- 2 of her favorites- and life was good!
Like any two-year-old, Emerson could not wait to dive into her cupcake. She snuck in one bite when everyone was singing happy birthday and then proceeded to wait patiently until the song was over to dive into the rest of it. It was truly precious.
Right about the time everyone was leaving, she was really getting used to having all her friends around. She kept giving everyone hugs and more hugs as they left. Her friend Hayden stuck around after everyone else left to go watch the TCU game. Hayden helped open presents. It only took Emerson opening one present for her to realize that each package would contain a new prize for her. She started opening them lightning fast. I could barely keep up with what was from who.
Hayden left around 7pm and Emerson instatly looked at me to tell me she was hungry. In all the commotion, Emerson had not had anything but cupcakes and popcorn to eat. So, I whipped up a quick meal of leftover party food and she chowed down and was ready to go to bed after such an exhausting afternoon.
On to the pictures:
The welcome sign
Party favors
Cupcakes
Family photo
Bean bag toss
Banner
Food
Hey guys, what are ya'll doing?
Sweet friends
She loved this hat
Hot pink frosting. Yummy.
Sharing popcorn
Face painting
Crafts
Lots of Emerson's precious friends were able to come to the party. They are the ones who made it so much fun!
Ashley and baby sister, Abby
Jaylee
Claire (and her twin Catherine who managed to escape the camera)
Noah
Mac and little sister, Lilla
Rylie and baby brother, Brandon
Annie
Lincoln
Hayden
Ethan
Birthday girl!
After all the work that this party took, I think next year I might take the year off from party planning and simply write a check to somewhere like Gymboree or Bounce houses. It sure would be easier to let someone else do all the work.
PS- I need to give some big shout-outs to all my friends who helped out. I delegated a LOT of the party to different people and they were all wonderful. Thank you to
Bethany for the beautiful banner. I got so many compliments on it and it is just perfect. Thank you to
Meghann for making the bean bag toss (and all the stuff I borrowed). It was so cute and a huge hit with the kiddos. Thank you to
Amber for the pictures. As usual, they are wonderful. I hope you get a lot of business from the moms at the party. Thank you to Meagan for the signs. They worked out just perfectly and looked great too. I think I am forgetting someone...if I am, I apologize, but you know who you are.
