Why, Hello, Ms. Kitty! (A Party Recap)

Caroline recently went to a Hello Kitty birthday party and fell in love.  This, combined with the resurgence of the little feline in pop culture quickly sparked the theme for her birthday party.  Here's the recap:

I have found a new hook up for ordering invitations. I have listed all of my sources below.  How cute did this turn out?

The colors, in person, are a little more vibrant.  The pink is pinker, the green is less lime and more green, the blue is more of a teal.

How cute is Caroline in her custom made shirt?  She's posing, by the way, in front of a banner her Aunt Laura made her which reads "Happy 3rd Birthday."

The boys and girls all played in the yard for a bit (because even though it was Dec. 2nd, the high was 70 degrees!) while the grown ups munched on some yummy food.  I took no pictures of what I served, so stock photos will have to do.  I have also linked you all the the recipes.  You're welcome.  Everything turned out exactly as promised, so it's safe to say these are fail-proof.  'Cause the Good Lord knows I can mess up a good recipe from time to time.


Source, via Pinterest

In addition to the ham sammies, I also served a so-good-they-were-scraping-the-dish sausage and cream cheese dip courtesy of this site: http://www.entertaininglife.com/2011/10/go-to-party-dip-cream-cheese-sausage-dip/.  Now, I am not the best photographer, so I'm not judging, but I didn't borrow her images of this dip because, trust me.  It just tastes way better than it looks on this site.

Back to the party.  I am sure we have all pinned the tail on way to many poor bob-tailed animals in out day and beaten helpless pinatas to an unidentifiable pulp.  So when coming up with party activities, I just deferred to the obvious: all the little children have nary a thought that doesn't involve Mr. Bearded sleigh-driver.  Thanks to the magic of--you guessed it--Pinterest, I produced a fun little craft.

I remembered seeing this but, gasp!, not pinning this last year.  Basically you use Santa's beard as an Advent Calendar / Christmas countdown.  The Organised Housewife provided the image download here, and the poem at the bottom was found here, courtesy of Alison.  I combined the image download and retyped the poem in MS Word using 11 x 17 paper and uploaded it to Staples Copy Center so they could print it for me in color on card stock.  This is what the final product looked like:

There was cake for the grown ups and cupcakes that the kids could decorate themselves with an array of sprinkles and sugar crystals. 

 

I love that "look of concentration" both my kids get.  See Rob's above for comparison.

I think our friend Maddox approved of his cupcake.  Don't you?

After Caroline's mad dash to open her gifts, this party was done!  One final "Happy Birthday" to Caroline and now we can officially start the Christmas season!

PS: Notice that football was on in the background.  Priorities! 

Party Sources
Invitations: www.invitingyoudesigns.com
Birthday Shirt: a personal friend, Jenny
Birthday Banner: created on a cricut from Aunt Laura
Cake and Cupcakes: Publix
Food and Crafts: documented via hyperlinks