Fairy Garden Party

Saturday was Ellie's birthday party.  She's turning nine this week, and I thought we were going to get away with no party this year.  She had previously said she wanted to just have a family trip to Hershey Park, but several months ago decided she actually did want a party.

Of course the type of party she wanted kept changing.  The algorithm seemed to be that she wanted whatever type of party she had just been to.  In order to break this vicious cycle, I decided I needed to take control of my own destiny.

My goal was to come up with something that could be done outside with a small group.  Fairy garden was one of the things that the girls had been playing consistently with an old birdhouse Ellie had.  They spent a lot of time in the spring setting up all sorts of landscapes, bridges, ponds, rivers, forests etc. around the birdhouse.  

I did some searching on Pinterest and found this party and off we went.  The other request Ellie had was not to have cake, but to make ice cream sundaes.  Done.

This was really manageable and easy to put together.  I'm guessing it cost, including the pizza/ice cream about $125-$150.  All the little houses were purchased at craft stores using 50% off coupons, same for most of the landscape decorations (little pebbles, shells, stones, etc.).  

The trays were kind of a splurge.  I got those from Home Depot for around $4.50, you could definitely get trays for much less, but I liked how sturdy those were and since we were keeping the party small I thought it was OK.  

We picked up some moss from the craft store, but most of the moss Ellie 'harvested' from our backyard and we picked up lots of bark on our walks with the dog.  That was actually Carina's idea, it was fun to see them getting into finding things for the party. 

We also found some things in my stash that could be used, like Maya Road wooden spools we used to make tables.

It was really fun to see how the girls personalized their houses and created landscapes and items like sinks for their houses.  All told, the process took about an hour.

Then there was eating, ice cream sundae making (these girls used up a whole canister of Whip Cream!), and gift opening.  (The ice cream sundae cups were a Michael's find, 50% off summer clearance, so $1 a piece and the girls got to take them home.)  It was really warm and sunny out, so I took pity on the girls and let them come inside to eat.  

Ellie was also involved in making the thank you notes.  I thought Lawn Fawn's Fairy Friends would be perfect for the party.  I'm linking this up to the Simon Says Stamp Summer Vacation Kids Challenge for her.  (Is it me, or does she look really old??!!!)

A great weekend for Ellie.  We're keeping the party going here as we're celebrating her actual birthday tomorrow, and then Carina's birthday this coming Saturday.  Now to get back to my paper mache....