Emily has spoken

A very important day in a little girl's life is getting close and thus begins the planning. We gone back and for 10934806745082 times between candy, princess, fairies, butterflies, back to princess, to finally decide on her 5th birthday party theme. Drum rolls please.....Emily has chosen cupcakes as her theme (without a ton of persuasion from mom but I will admit that I did have some say).

I am thrilled with the theme and have begun my planning and preparing for this unforgettable party. Bret has set the budget and so I have begun my shopping. Yesterday I bought this



to make for the adults who will be at the party. I also got a really good coupon from Oriental Trading company that gave me 15% off my order and free shipping so I made some purchases there as well. Just in case you are curious here is the outline for the party:

Girls decorate aprons
Eat snacks
Decorate cupcakes
Make sprinkle people
Pinata

The aprons are from Oriental Trading and I was little disappointed that they were not white/canvas colored. They were sold out of those and only had colored ones to choose from. I looked a couple of other places but couldn't really find anything in our price ranges. So colored aprons to decorate it is. I also got some fun self adhesive jewels, puffy paint, etc to decorate them with.

For snacks we usually have Emily's favorite finger foods (fruit tray, vegetable tray, meat/cheese/crackers, etc, etc).

Emily and I will make the cupcakes in advance and have the frosting and toppings ready to go. I saw a really cute idea of using small muffin tins with liners for the different toppings. There is also a lady at the farmer's market that sells the most amazing variety of sprinkles. I have been promising Emily that we would go and pick a bunch of different ones out (they are pretty cheap too). I also got little cupcake boxes so that the girls can take home one of their creations as well.

The sprinkle people is the one craft that I have to work with a little before the actual party. I saw the most adorable idea in one of my magazines to make sand people using colored sand, empty plastic bottles, and things like funny hair/eyes/pom poms/etc. They were super cute. I like this idea because we have pretty much everything we need for this activity. The only hang up is that our sand it not colored...yet. I have been reading online about how to color your own sand (cause we have lots of sand) so I will let you know as I experiment on how it goes.

I really wasn't going to do a pinata this year but Emily INSISTED. To her that is the epitome of a birthday party. I am not having much luck finding a cupcake pinata (that doesn't have a 1 or 2 on it) for a reasonable price. I have, however, found a couple of tutorials on how to make your own. We will see. Speaking of not finding anything I am also not finding any tableware that doesn't have a 1 or 2 on it. So I am probably just going to go with solid colors or maybe just a generic Happy Birthday.

For invitations I found a really cute (and cheap) photo card at Walmart to use and have already ordered them. We are well on our way to getting this party ready.

On other party news I am helping throw a baby shower for one of the residents. The mom to be really likes monkeys so they are having a jungle type theme....but it is a girl. I am responsible for decorations and favors among other things. I am still trying to come up with a cute favor idea that is super affordable (cause there are going to be like 50 guests and it adds up pretty quick). I did find some super cute jungle stuffed animals at OTC for a good price that will look awesome placed around the area and I know that my diaper cake will be lots of fun too. It is slowly coming together but I am always open for cute ideas.