Delightful Details

How is it that the 12 weeks of summer are almost over?!!? I promise, it was JUST the end of May and we were JUST finishing up school. And yet, here we are, just one week from the start of a new preschool year, planning fall activities and enjoying one last jaunt out of town before the schedule changes once again. So, where have I been? Clearly, ignoring the blog-o-sphere, right? Just savoring the hot, dog days of summer, traveling {seemingly non-stop in the past month}, attempting to walk the precarious line of balancing life. We never slowed down. We never were lazy. Not one day. All summer. But, we've enjoyed the frenzy, making the best of each day and suddenly, with a blink of an eye, the summer of 2011 is nearly in the past. Part of me says I should just skip posting summer details, but I hate to disregard all the fun we've had, not to mention all the milestones and growth of our girl. So, perhaps I will push the "slow down" button of life these next couple of weeks {despite the fact school is starting} and catch up. 

First up, the details from the birthday party, as I promised {and when these posts are up, the last of the thank you cards MUST go in the mail too!!!}. I need to give credit again to all those whose hands helped with these details and also to two websites that really spawned the creativity - Belleza e Luce and Yvonne Byatt's Family Fun. Thank the Lord for Pinterest too - pinning ideas made the chaos in my brain actually somewhat organized!

The invitation, hand-created by Aunt BeBe and I; her new Cricut proved to be quite useful in the party planning!

Food table - font on the backdrop look familiar? Thanks Paige for lending your Coton Colors' style!

Food was lite for the late afternoon party - reminiscent of Mary's tea party with Bert and penguins. Cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, flower-shaped raspberry bites; petit fours; a Spoonful of Sugar for each child; we also had heart-shaped cheese biscuits, a fruit and cheese tray and caramel-dipped apple bites; all simple foods we could prepare in the days leading up to the party and tastes that weren't heavy, considering it was 100+ degrees on the lovely June afternoon.

Cake and cupcakes were {naturally} from the ever tasty Cake Shop, but we added our own fondant toppers {which, believe it or not, we created several weeks before the party and stored in air-tight containers}. A Mary Poppins hat and stripes for LE's birthday cake, umbrellas, kites, hats and little penguins for the cupcakes.

The blueberry sweet tea, lemonade and water were perhaps the most popular part of the party - have I mentioned it was hot?!?

The kids' favorite part! I really wanted a carousel for the party, but those can't be rented. And Tax Man wasn't so interested in building one :).

Helium-filled carousel horse balloons on red-taped PVC pipe, with Pom-Poms {created by Yenna} made for cute decor around the party. Tax Man made the "step in time" city scape in the background, which made for a perfect backdrop for photos with the kiddos.

Each of the girls added a flower to a hat and took home lacy parasols {which served double-duty as decor} and white gloves.

Kites for the boys and parasols for the girls, made great decor.

Each one had a personalized luggage tag we created on the Cricut.

Favor bags had little ceramic piggy banks "to save your tuppence," sidewalk chalk "to create your own chalk drawings in which to jump" and eyelet-wrapped birdseed "to feed the birds"

All-in-all, we were pretty pleased with the outcome!

 I'll be back {in less than a month!} to share a few of my favorite family shots the photographer got during the party and wrap up all the additional birthday celebrating we did in the weeks surrounding her birthday {including our little beach trip}.

Hope you are savoring the final days of freedom!