Some how, probably a little me pushing the idea we decided on a strawberry party. There aren't many fun or easy strawberry shortcakes ideas or party stuff so it was more strawberry with a little shortcake thrown in here and there.
Well once we were set on a theme the shopping and fun began. I somehow found stuff everywhere. From cute strawberry ribbon to strawberry coloring sheets even awesome strawberry bubbles my mom found at the dollar store... The idea came from a blog and we were lucky to score them just in time for the party. There is defiantly a lot of planning that goes into a party but since I love the planning aspect of it, it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of fun crafts as well. Sydney was a big help and loved every little thing I let her do. From hitting print for the invitations, to holding and even helping cut the ribbon.
It took me a long time to decide on invitations, I couldn't find any I liked anywhere so finally Sydney and I just made them. It wasn't too hard I typed up the information(on my iPad since my laptop has issues) then printed them, Sydney had to load them in one at a time and hit print each time because of the scalloped edge so they wouldn't jam. It was time consuming but she loved ever minute of it. Then we used my cricut cutter and cut out strawberries and punched a hole and tied them on with the cute strawberry ribbon.
This was the finished product. Not bad, then Sydney informed me she wanted to invite all 24 kids in her class so we made a few of the following with a nice strawberry sticker to save time. Since my little helper passed out after half were finished. We ended up making just under 40 invitations total.
There were a lot of personal touches like a birthday banner Sydney and I made together. Please note the amount of strawberry ribbon we had on hand just incase.
After making the banner I couldn't decide where to hang it but in the end I love how it turned out. The night before I came up with a great idea use an empty frame to hang it and I love how it looked. I hung it on the wall above my favorite part of the planning, the "berry sweet treats" table.
I love love love the candy station trend going on with weddings right now so I created my own party version. It was fun looking for red and pink foods and of course anything strawberry. The final layout and display was done by my sister Cara and I was quite pleased. Let's just say I think she may have had more fun than me setting it up and if she wants she defiantly could have a future in candy display. Not I ever see that happening but I can't wait to have her setup another one. This photo was taken right before I hung the frame on the wall.
I loved the strawberry I found online and I used it a lot. On signs, on the goodie bags, I even printed a few and put them in frames.
As you can see we made goodie bags and we came up with a lot of fun strawberry stuff in the end, with a lot of help from my mom. The goodie bags included strawberry shaped bubbles, strawberry erasers and pencils, strawberry shortcake glasses, a mirror, pen and active books for the girls. The boys were similar minus the strawberry aspect. Sydney loved putting them all together.
The last project was bean bags, again a cute idea I saw in a blog post. A strawberry bean bag toss. My mom helped by buying and sewing a few bean bags out of strawberry material. Then Auntie Cara helped Sydney fill them with beans.
Over all the planning was a lot of fun and I was glad Sydney had just as much fun as I did helping with all the preparations. I can't wait to start planning the next party. Hmmm I wonder what I can come up with if I plan for a full year instead of just two months. Well get excited the next post will be the berry sweet 6th birthday party with tons of photos.
- Christa
