Sweet man. I was going to have the party no matter what he said but it was nice of him to agree with me. ;)
Here are a few pictures of Amelia's long-awaited Valentine Party!
Starting with the invitation. I gave Amelia four different ones to choose from and this is the one she chose. She said, "I want the one with a baby doll."
Welcome to the party!
My SIL, Sara, painted me a set of these - one for each month. I just love changing them out each month.
My SIL, Elaina, made us some cute banners to hang for the party.
Here's the table. I took pictures before I tied the balloons to each chair. The balloons made it a little more festive as well!
She also made these cute hearts for the back of the chairs. Each guest had a little mailbox with their name on it at their place setting. Amelia put her valentine to each of them inside the mailbox and then when it was time to trade valentines - they all went around and placed them inside each other's mailboxes. Majority of the decorations came from Target $1 bin or Dollar Tree.
I must say that I'm a huge fan of the doily after this party. I used them on everything. I'm also a huge fan of using wrapping paper on the tables! My friend, Mandi, told me about this and I think she's just brilliant. I already had this red and white wrapping paper in my gift closet so that's what we used.
I ordered wooden forks and spoons stamped with a Happy Valentine's Day message for the kiddos to use. I love Etsy!
Here's my sweet Valentine - anxiously waiting for her guests to arrive. She had a hard morning and wasn't feeling too well. I gave her some medicine and after lying down for a little bit she was ready to go. The doorbell rang at one point and she said, "IT'S MY FRIENDS!!" Unfortunately, it was the UPS man. She said, "it wasn't my friends, Mommy...it was just a package." (LOL)
Kandace arrived early which was very nice. She and Amelia played for a bit while Elaina and I finished things up in the kitchen. I ordered Amelia's dress from HERE. Love this Etsy seller...all of her dresses are very retro and in bright colors. We'll be ordering from her again!
This was our drink station. Amelia chose strawberry milk and lemonade as the drinks for the party.
Raspberry lemonade has been one of my cravings for several weeks now. I specifically love Cracker Barrel's raspberry lemonade and if you call a few days ahead - you can order it by the gallon for a party! I forgot to take a picture but I also bought a heart shaped ice cube mold ($1 bin at Target) and made some out of lemonade to go in our drinks. I used little mason jars for the lemonade and covered the lid with scrapbook paper and parchment paper. Alex actually gave me the idea of the parchment on top of the scrapbook paper - I was pleased with how they turned out. The paper heart straws came from Etsy.
Here's the food table. Or I should really say the SWEETS table.
We had heart marshmallows on a stick, heart rice krispies on a stick (thanks to Aunt Joy), heart cakes, and jello. The jello was a specific request by Amelia. :)
Another request she had was powdered donuts.
If you want to win my girl's heart...give her a powdered donut.
My sis, Joy, also made white chocolate popcorn with pink M&M's. This stuff is addictive. We still have some and I can't stop eating it!
My blog friend, Robin, made these adorable valentine cookies for us. They tasted as good as they look! She's so talented.
And the only real food we had....Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets with dipping sauces. We also had strawberry romaine salad for the Mamas!
I apologized in advance to all the Moms for sending their kiddos home on a sugar high. How often do you get to have a table full of sweets like that though!? :)
After the kiddos were all hyped up on sugar - we did a little crafting. I'm the first to admit, I'm not a real crafty person. I've used a glue gun twice in my life and burned myself both times. Trying to find a craft for the party was the hardest part for me. I spent over an hour in Michael's trying to find something they would enjoy doing, that wouldn't take long (because their attention span is so short), but they would actually use. I finally decided on heart/flower felt barretts (like the one in Amelia's hair), felt heart magnets, and chalkboard hearts.
After crafts the kiddos played some more and then our friends had to leave, but not before we gave them goodie bags with all sorts of treats...like candy, crazy heart straws, play-doh, crayons, notepad, bubbles, stickers...fun stuff like that! I ordered some round stickers that had a little message from Amelia on them from where else...Etsy.
And every little girl needs some jewelry on Valentine's Day.
We also sent them home with a little more candy. I wrapped some scrapbook paper around a package of Rolos. They turned out so cute! Rolos are one of my favorite candies.
Here's all the munchkins on Amelia's bed. I hope they had a great time. I know my little girl did. She'll never forget her first "Balentine" party.
Thank you to my sister, Joy, and to my sister-in-laws. There's no way I could have done it without their help. They made things and ran errands for me so I could stay on bed rest. They knew how much this meant to Amelia and me and just made it happen. I don't know what I would do without my family!
Love to all,
