Celebrate with PAINT {Em's 6th Bday}

See that sweet, smiling girl?

She turned SIX on December 23rd. 

And because she is so patient and kind and understanding, she waited until February 8th to celebrate her birthday with her friends (because her mama was suffering first trimester incapacitation in December and January)!

Emily Kate has such a special, sweet spirit.  I truly don't know what I did to deserve such a gentle soul.  She is a true joy and I adore giving her reason to smile that radiating grin.  And planning a special, albeit very belated, birthday celebration was one way that was sure to make her beam with excitement.

Em loves art.  She colors or draws or writes nearly everyday.  Her mind is much more creative and imaginative than that of her analytical brother.  She loves to create just about anything.  And so in honor of my art lover, I planned a paint party with her school friends.

We invited her friends with a fun alternative to the traditional invitation...

We told them to "dress for a mess" because we held the party at a local art studio that teaches art classes to children... and they planned to PAINT!

The location itself wasn't much to look at, so I did my best to distract from the ugliness by decorating a few tables.

The biggest "decoration" I made was the centerpiece of the table that was a paint-inspired swag anchored between two "paint cans" (courtesy of Hobby Lobby's spring decor).

It was made from multiple colors of streamers, ribbons, paint chips from the paint story with lots of paint brushes and sponges tied to it.  It took some time, but was cheap and easy and added lots of fun color!

I also made two canvases for the occasion.

A few other fun details included a paint chip "runner" and jars of paint brushes and sponges.

And lots of high flying, colorful balloons!

When the girls first arrived, they spent a few minutes "painting" a "cookie canvas" at this fun table...

I had cookies made that looked like framed canvases and the girls were able to "paint" them with food markers (edible too!).

When they completed their cookie canvas, they bagged it up and added it to their take-home "art caddy".  

This table was also covered in art paper and had water jars available for the girls to use their watercolors from their party invites to paint free-style or fill in the shapes that I had created on the surface.

At the end of the party, the table looked like this!

 

Next on the agenda was painting Van Gogh-style butterflies.  I'm not sure that the girls really did much of the Van-Gogh swirl style that the instructor was trying to get them to do, but they had fun getting messy in the paint!

{emily creating her masterpiece}

{check out molly's "butterfly"}

{Em's final work of art}

Next on the party plan was face painting!  The birthday girl was first up and she chose a butterfly in honor of the art project they had just completed.

Her reaction to seeing her sparkling face for the first time was pretty cute!

There were lots of butterflies with jewel embellishments and a few kitty cats as well!

As the girls adorned their faces, one by one, we proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to our art lover and indulge in a variety of paint-themed yummies.

The treats were fun and simple too.  I found cute plastic paint pallets online to use as plates.  I filled the little circles with cake balls (paint) and ice cream toppings (more paint).  They were able to decorate their ice cream with the toppings and have bites of both chocolate and white cake!

 

Emily helped make the rice krispy "paint brushes"!

A few shots of the place settings; including their paint chip place cards and goody "art caddies"...

As a mom, I try to teach my kids how to use good manners in party situations, but I always kind of worry that my well-intentioned "life lessons" will fly out the window once the excitement of the gift opening begins!  In this case though, I was super proud of Emily (and somewhat amazed) by the amount of time, care, and consideration she gave each and every gift she received.  She was so happy and ran to hug each friend, with words of thanks, after opening their gift.

One of my favorite parts of party planning is the take home favor, or "goody bag", as my kids call them.  For some reason, these are just fun for me to create.  For this party, the girls each got a personalized apron wear during the party and to take home with them.

And they each got a little "art caddy" that contained some paint brush pens (awesome for kids, by the way!), bright gum balls tied with paintbrushes, and their "cookie canvas" that they made.  And they added their watercolor set from the party invite too!

Overall, this was a super fun party for all of the girls (and for me to plan!)  It's hard to believe that my first little girl is already 6!  I love the little girl she is becoming and am so proud and lucky to be able to call her mine!

And her little friends are all so sweet too!

As I was cleaning up the party, the art instructor told me that they were "the most well behaved group of children she has ever seen at a birthday party!"  Pretty high praise considering how many birthday parties she sees!  I would have to agree... they were a cute and sweet group of little ladies!

Happy 6th Birthday Emily Kate!   

*****

Side note that I want to remember about Emily...

I sometimes can't believe how different she and her brother are.  Both have their individual strong characteristics, as well as their challenges.  But one area that Emily excels in is her generosity towards others... especially her little sisters.  Where Noah is overly protective of his "stuff" and struggles with sharing, Emily is at the other end of the spectrum... sometimes bordering on possibly being too generous!  

She embraced having her little sisters as party guests; telling Molly that she was her "BFF" and offering to share her chair with her during the present opening (as Molly was throwing a fit (one of her more lackluster traits) because she, too, wanted a chair at the front).  Both little girls snatched up several of Emily's gifts and began to play with them during the party; Emily never even blinked.  The day after her party, Emily was eager to begin playing with all of her new things.  She didn't let the fact that Abby wrote all over her new horse or on the pages of her new Frozen book phase her... she willingly allowed both little sisters to play with all of her new things.  Even when she began to color a "DIY" bulletin board, she sweetly allowed Molly to color one half while she worked on the other half.  When I told her how proud I was of her generosity and willingness to share, she sweetly said... "Well, I kind of didn't want my board to have scribbles on it, but it's okay.  Molly is doing her best."  And when they began to make headbands, Molly, once again, began to cry because she wanted the headband that Emily had chosen, Emily quickly just traded with her.  I'm not sure where she learned to be so self-sacrificing.  Certainly not from me (or her older brother!).  But it is one of the many things about her that make her so special.  She has always been a nurturer and extra kind to her sisters, but these particular situations really struck me.  I'm so proud of her!
She makes me want to be less selfish and complain less!