it's party time!

Anybody else think, "It's Hammer time!" in their head?

No? Just me? :)

This past Sunday was Sara's 4th birthday party. She wanted it to be princess themed, but I'm sick a little bored of Disney princesses, so we just went with super girly & she got to wear a princess dress. 

I'm sure all the boys were very happy about that. :)

Saturday night, I had seven children and four adults in my home. I didn't get all the decorating done that I wanted (I couldn't find my tissue paper last minute, so that meant no tissue paper balls from the dining room chandelier), and Michael decided he wanted to grill at the last minute, but it still all turned out and we happily hosted around 40 people Sunday afternoon. 

I found this balloon wreath idea on Pinterest. I originally wanted to do it in pink, purple, and white -- but ya'll, that was expensive. So we got the multi-colored ones & used those instead. I figured that this way, I can lend them out and it's both girl AND boy colors. More use...hey, I'm trying to justify $$$ spent, can you tell? ;)

I think it turned out pretty well! I borrowed a spray stand from my aunt who owns a florist & spray painted it white to hold the wreath. I really like it a lot.

 (And she forgot to take the stand home, so now my Alabama/Florida "house divided" wreath is on it. I will show ya'll that in another post -- it's super cute!)

I wanted to do big lollipops as favors, but couldn't find any. So I opted for bubbles. I'm not a fan of huge goody bags filled with lots of little things that will be thrown in the trash in five seconds that the kids never really play with. One year I gave out books, one year was coloring books & crayons, etc. 

I found the plate at Ross back around Easter for $3.99, I think. I used it for June's birthday & then now for Sara's. I had a pink one, but it got broken. I put pink tulle around the bottom of it & tied curly ribbons to the bubbles. Simple, easy, and cute.

I found these plates/napkins/flatware at Target on clearance. SUPER cheap -- and so cute!

I found this idea on Pinterest, too. 

I don't know about ya'll, but I loooove chocolate dipped pretzels! These were a HUGE hit and I will definitely be doing this more at get togethers.

Note -- this was about 3/4 of a bag of pretzels & a whole package of almond bark.

I thought about this last minute. I found it on...wait for it...Pinterest! I painted an old yellow planter (baby pink, if you can't tell) & filled it with water bottles. If I'd thought it out, I would have ordered labels for the bottles, but oh well. It was still cute. :)

And....the cake!

Oh, this cake. 

I am NOT a good baker. I don't claim to be, and I never will be.

I found this idea on Pinterest (where else??) and HAD to try it. It was super easy, but I'll be the FIRST to say my cake turned out lopsided, uneven, and all around NOT the best. But I made it, Sara loved it, and I got a few compliments on it. That made me happy. :)

I tried to make the inside pink & purple layers...

Well, I got the pink, but the purple could have been more pigmented.

It was the first time I've ever done anything like that, so I'm happy with how it turned out.

And let me leave you with the birthday girl showin' off her moo-lah!

We are SO thankful for all our family & friends who took the time out to come to her birthday party. This is probably her last birthday here for a few years and it was so nice to get everyone together.