It happened …….

…… my baby turned 4. I’ve always said that she is my child that keeps my young yet makes me feel so old! She is currently sitting in the middle of the living room floor playing with her loot and actually sharing without bossing anyone around – miracle!

Yesterday morning, Carson come running into my room and asked me, “Why didn’t Emme turn 4 today??”

“She did. Today is her birthday.”

“Then why does she still look 3?”

I was asleep so I just stared at him. I couldn’t come up with an answer quick enough for his curious mind. It kills me when they come to you with such “deep” questions and you don’t know how to answer without 97 “huhs?” and “whys?” and “whats?” and that really blank stare I get that definitely tells me I don’t understand a thing you just said, but if I keep looking at you this way, you will most positively try to explain it a different way look. As mothers/parents, I know you get this look all the time so you know what I mean. Most times I get it and re-explain, but not at 5:30 in the morning! And I have no idea why I had kids up at 5:30.

The party went great – and fortunately for you picture lovers I took 119 photographs!! Oh yes, I did!! Unfortunately, I won’t post any of the “party” pictures because I don’t know who will be okay with their kid on the internet. Or I should say I don’t know who will NOT be okay with it – because I’m sure of a few that wouldn’t mind!

The biggest thing is how we made my ideas and Em’s work as far as color and decorations. Like I said, if it were up to Emme, this party would have looked like a 50th wedding anniversary because “golden” is her fav-O-rite color! But she will settle for blue and turquoise. And she “can handle purple, pink and maybe just a little green.” That is a quote.

The first thing started with the invitations. I have seen these in the store for a really long time and I loved them! But they were the fill in kind. Nothing is wrong with the fill in kind. But my hand gets tired after about the second one and then they start looking more like chicken scratch. Or I write the wrong thing in the wrong spot, then I have to throw that one away and start fresh with a new one. I can easily waste over half of the box by hand writing the info in. But this box of cuteness was half off. And there were a few boxes. So, I folded ….

I only cheated {thank you photo shop} and ran them through the printer once I had it all aligned up correctly. It only took about 3 tries and it fell into place – where it was suppose to be! And I only wasted white paper. I messed up zero cards! But I only used 2 boxes. I still have a third box {of 10} – anyone need some really cute birthday invites?? I thought these would be perfect with all the colors, but this was before we had agreed on all the colors. Miss Sassy was upset these came with hot pink envelopes! She is so used to me saying get over it.

I also found the Thank You’s {on sale,} too!

Since the party was at a pottery place and I have never been to a party there, I didn’t know how well we would do with cake and ice cream . I tried to make it as mess free as possible! We did petit fours and cups of ice cream – easy. And really there wasn’t much mess! We also did juice BOXES. Seems the BOXES are easier to drink from without the accidental squirt you get from the pouches. Especially if you pull the ears out. Not that they can’t still squeeze it out, but you really don’t have the “accident” part.

A while back, I found cupcake liners in the dollar bin at Michael’s. I bought a ton of cute ones. Since we were doing the petit fours, I thought they would look cute in a hodge podge of them {sorta like the invite!}

Yes, a dollar for each. You are looking at 3 bucks total.

Turquoise was the main color – but we threw in all the other colors, too.

Square plates because the are cool. And cute.

The petit fours came from Publix. I love these little guys. For one I love the way the taste and how they are cold! I serve mine right out of the fridge. I also bought 50 something for under $35. Totally worth it for the mess free! The only thing is I was going to just stake little flags made out of scrapbook paper, but I let the ladies behind the counter talk me into the “E” you see on top. The “E” would be great …. if it was a cute “E.” That is ugly! And these are the better looking ones. Truthfully, I looked at them and thought those are ugly, but that was it. I swear I didn’t stress over the ugly “E’s” – I just thought I would point out that I know they are ugly since I’m positive there will be a few of you out there thinking the same thing! But hey, at least the color is right! I think that would have been much worse! hah!

All together, it was a cute spread.

Really, this was hysterical. The cross-eyes got worse the second I took the picture!

Emme chose a piggy bank to paint. I canNOT wait to see this after it is fired up! All though the kids got to paint a piece of pottery, they couldn’t take it home yet. I will have to do the deliveries in about a week. But I couldn’t stand the little people going home empty handed. Rock candy just seemed perfect in this type of situation.

They could choose turquoise, green, white and pink. Each were in a cello bag with different widths and colors of grosgrain ribbons. And because the candy wasn’t enough – why not a balloon, too. One is edible and the other is disposable – very important.

Now I’m off to start the Thank You cards!

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For Emsley’s past parties ………

Emme’s first birthday, a few more pictures of the first birthday

Emme’s second birthday

Emme’s third birthday