Fairies & Fondue

Oh my goodness.  It has taken me so long to get around to this post!  The party was three weeks ago!  I swear, every time I think I have a free minute of "me time", I remember something else that I need to get done.  (I know.  I know.  I'm preaching to the choir with all you busy moms out there.  Sigh.  At least you understand.)  I'm also working on some school lunch menu stuff for our local schools right now and that's consuming more time than I expected.  Life is busy!  I just finished making Will's birthday invitations and hand-delivered most of them this weekend. 

About a month before the party, I sent out these invitations to our usual guests to join us for a "Fairies & Fondue Party" in honor of Sophie's 3rd birthday.  I was so pleased with these sweet and inexpensive cards from Tiny Print because they weren't custom and they were exactly what I wanted.

I had a very detailed to-do list leading up to the party and managed to get quite a bit done in advance.

On party morning, I found the kids chilling out with a little Nick Jr. while I got breakfast on the table.

Sophie hadn't let go of her birthday balloon and was managing to cling to it while still sucking her thumb.  This is not their usual seating arrangement and I was shocked that there wasn't more bickering given their close proximity to one another.

Intense zombie faces appropriate for cartoon-watching.

Sophie also got to open a couple gifts this morning because, after the constant busyness of her actual birthday, we never got to any gift-giving on her special day.

Love these rainbow blocks from Lakeshore!  A cool change of pace from our beloved Melissa & Doug set.

And this is a REALLY awesome game that I ordered from Scholastic over a year ago for a really great price.  It's called Winomino and it's a super high quality wood board and pieces.  I knew Sophie would be totally into it once she figured out the concept because she seems intrigued with dimensional math concepts.  In the meantime, the adults and Will are having a blast with it.  Sophie likes to play too, but doesn't fully understand what to do yet.

Aren't these blocks so pretty?

Shortly after nap, it was almost time for our guests to arrive.  I was making great time with all the preparations and I'd managed to shower and get myself ready so I could spend some special moments dressing my little fairy girl.  These are the skirt and wings from our friend Jill (for Christmas this year) and  I bought the pink leotard from Old Navy online.  Got it for just $3 shipped!  She loved wearing this outfit.

I told her I had some special things for her to wear with her pretty outfit and we pulled them out and decked her out one piece at a time.  ;-)  A "birthday girl" tiara, bracelets, rings and a ribbon wand.

She very sweetly greeted each of her guests with "Welcome to my party!" as they came into the house.

Mommy & Daddy with our birthday girl.

Our party was casual as usual.  Most of my creative efforts went into the menu planning, while the decorations were minimal.  I took the theme in the direction of "woodland" type fairies instead of princess fairies.  Fondue became the basis of the menu because it's fun and different... and if I'm really being honest, because I liked the alliteration of the words "fairies and fondue".  ;-)  Also, nearly everything was homemade.  The only thing I took a shortcut on was the cheese fondue because I have never found a recipe that I like.  A coworker of mine suggested a pre-made cheese fondue from Anderson's that was really good.

My mom took the hardest task of all off my hands.  She made the "fairy fruit wands" (ala Weelicious) complete with cantaloupe cut into butterfly shapes and starfruit as a wand topper.  I loved how they turned out!

I also labeled everything with festive names 'cause I think that's cute.  Just some pretty scrapbook paper "tents" to create the labels.  This is a washed out picture of the fruit label.  You can see the pretty paper further down.

Cherry tomatoes with a small shaving cut from one end to create a flat surface + string cheese stick cut into pieces + cream cheese to dot the tops + pesto spread on the plate to create a mossy/grassy look = "toadstools".  :)

Cheese cubes for the kidlins.  Favorite white bean dip with veggies and pita chips.

Tortillas spread with a thin layer of strawberry cream cheese and strawberry jam rolled up and sliced (with two toothpicks inserted to look like a snail) = "snail sandwiches".

Chocolate fondue essentials.

I actually just used our favorite homemade "hot fudge sauce" laced with marshmallow creme as the chocolate fondue 'cause it's fantastic and doesn't get hard with or without heat.

My favorite caramel fondue recipe complete with grahams, apple slices, banana bread cubes and pumpkin chocolate chip bread cubes (made in advance and frozen until party day).

For beverages, I decided to go simple with ice water with lemon and lime slices since many of our adult guests request water anyway.  I did have a couple 2 liters of pop out for Craig and my brothers, but they were the only ones that drank it.

We drank out of Mason jars again and I ordered some pretty striped straws from a party website found on Pinterest.

For favor bags, I used simple paper lunch bags because I thought they looked kind of woodsy.  I borrowed some fancy-edged scissors from a scrapbooking friend to make cardstock labels for each child's name.  And I printed a clipart of toadstools found online, laminated them and hot glued them to a clothes pin to clip the bags closed.

Inside, were bracelets and rings like Sophie's, fairy stickers, a pretty pencil and fingernail stickers for the girls.  And for the boys, I selected Pez dispensers and mini-activity sets for dinosaurs and Diego respectively.

I also set out some wands and ribbons for the girls to make-their-own fairy wand.  (Thank you, Casey, for assisting with that assembly!)

Some helium balloons ala my niece's parties since they are such big hits.  ;)

Again this year, I left our dining room table open for some guests to sit and eat and served food in the breakfast nook/pantry area instead.

Great Grandpa King was the first to arrive.  I think these pictures of Sophie with him are so sweet.  The way she's looking at him...

On our invitation, we requested that guests wear their tutus and wings.  (I knew for a fact that each little girl invited already owned these things and would not have to go buy them.)  But somehow, I neglected to specify:  CHILDREN wearing them!  My sister's family very comically ALL wore tutus to the party!  Love you, Rethman family!!!!

I really wish we'd had more space energy child-cooperation time to take better pictures of our little fairies all together 'cause this is really what I had envisioned most about this party.  But they all looked so adorable and I'm pretty sure they all had fun, so that's what matters.

Cecilia & Mya

Even baby Veronica wore a tutu for the occasion!

Will & Cora

Lincoln James

Stella Grace

Time to eat!

Thank you for the fruit wands, Nana!!

Pretty Cora

This series of pictures cracks me up.  My children truly do not know how to smile on request and they can be such bears in front of the camera!  Sophie also enjoys being difficult when you want her attention so this was the face she gave Casey who was taking the picture for us.  Haha!

So I tickled and smooched her until she smiled for real.

Gift opening.

We got Sophie some stilts from Lakeshore and they were immediately tried out by most of the kids.

Just like Will, Sophie also got her preschool backpack from mom and dad for her third birthday.  It's L.L.Bean with her initials at the top.

And the final gift from Craig and I was her Hatley umbrella and rain boots.  Purple with white and green flowers.  Her favorite colors!

Tangled on DVD from Grandma & Papa.  Yay!

Dress up clothes (including this hat) from Nana & Papa.  Mya modeled quite a lot of Sophie's gifts and I LOVE all of her pictures!  She had recently discovered her genuine, enthusiastic smile and I swear she has gotten like 10x cuter because of it.  She needs to give my kids some smiling lessons.

Adorable

After gift opening, Sophie helped me pass out the favor bags to all the kids.

And then we had dessert!  I opted out of a cake again and made some homemade strawberry ice cream instead.  Craig's mom brought some cookies as well and that was just the right amount of "dessert" after a substantially sweet fondue menu.

I set out an assortment of colored sugars for the kids to sprinkle on as "pixey dust".  Realizing a little too late that that might actually be spelled "pixie".  Whoops!

Waiting patiently for her ice cream.

Three candles for our three year old!

"Happy Birthday to You!"

Way to blow them all out, Soph!

Yum.

Sharing with cousins.  So generous.  ;)

Tom, Will & Craig.

Notice the change of clothes on Will?  That's one of his new shirts from Grandma & Papa who always bring a small gift for the sibling of the birthday child.  Will is psyched to have another short-sleeved shirt in his favorite color!  Those specifics are what he requests all the time.

See what I mean about Mya's cute smile?

Casey Lynn

Cora and her mommy - my cousin, Molly.

Great Grandma & Grandpa Konesky.

Cecilia Mae

Case, mom & I

Spin it, Linc!

I always get the cutest pictures of Will with his Godmother at Sophie's birthday parties, it seems.  :)

Sophie giving some lovin' to "baby 'ronica".

After the guests left, Will mastered stilt-walking.  (Love the concentration.)

And Sophie stripped naked except for her boots and backpack.  Silly girl!

Bath, books and bedtime followed... and then, of course, the clean-up!

I love taking post-party gift pictures to remember what each child received when.

These are Sophie's gifts from us.

New tennies and sandals from Nana & Papa.  And some cute socks to go with!

Dress-up apparel from Nana & Papa too.  That black, sequiny thing is a skirt!

A book Sophie apparently spotted and requested in a Scholastic form at Nana's house and a cute little owly for her collection.

Ingredients for a perfect summer, compliments of Grandma & Papa Riedeman:  a BIG box of sidewalk chalk, a big jug of bubbles (both favorites of Sophie's), a velcro catch game (super fun!) and Tangled movie.

Purse and bracelet from the Rethman fam and Dora dancer doll from the Munoz fam.

Clothes and jammies from Munoz's, Rethman's and both sets of grandparents.

The Rethman fam also gave Sophie her ticket to The Fresh Beat Band concert at the zoo this August!!  We are giving the twins tickets for their birthdays and Casey and I are taking the three girls to the concert together.  Can't wait!!

All in all, the party was a success!

Still wishing I had a more accommodating house for parties, but I don't generally want a bigger house the rest of the year, so I guess I'll deal.  LOL

Grateful for a sunny day and wonderful family to celebrate with.

Happy Birthday, Sophia!