This post has been a long time coming. I simply love parties; the planning, the people, the happiness, the joy, the fun, the…well everything about them really! Except maybe the clean up afterwards…that I don’t love, but I am cool with if I can have the other stuff. 🙂 I have to admit to going crazy in the past with really elaborate and very expensive parties (mainly kids birthdays) that I would get all stressed about; before because I had over estimated my time and abilities, and after reeling because “how could I spend so much money I had spent on a 3 year old’s party?!” and having too much junk food left over because I over catered (on the silly stuff that Pinterest said I must include at said 3 year old’s party) as always . I also felt worn out because I couldn’t fully enjoy the party because of the frenzy leading up to it and I had so much to clean up…ugh. Can anyone relate to any of this?
Well, for the past two years or so I have been streamlining the party planning process and it makes all the difference. Mainly I keep it simple, the menu, the decor, the activities, everything. Simple.
Here was my Flamingling Plan…
Menu
- Pink frosted cupcakes (regular vanilla and a gluten free, egg free cupcake for our allergic friends) – made by yours truly from box mixes…remember I am not much us a baker.
- Cut up fruit: Cubed Watermelon, Strawberries and Sliced Apples and Pears – I tried to keep to a pink and red theme
- Bagels: These are simple and inexpensive and relatively healthy (depending on your food ideals). These I sliced into quarters to make small portions for small people and served with Regular cream cheese and Strawberry cream cheese.
- Beverages: Pink Lemonade and Water. With beverages I like to mix-up a large container of Lemonade (or tea or Juice) rather than buying a bunch of mini-throw-away individual containers. I am very enviromentally conscience and all the waste makes me feel bad, also making a large batch is less exspensive and gives me the opportunity to use my spouted beverage container.
Decor:
- I love simple decorations, I think they bring everything together! So for this party, I used a simple dark colored patterned table runner (under $15 at TJmaxx) that can be used again, a Plastic Flamengo (who now gaurds our front porch), to man the Lemonade station, and the Pinata (a birthday party favorite at our house)for the middle of the table.
Activities:
- I had bubbles for all the kids (which were promptly dumped out by the 3 year olds), they played outside and then it was Pinata time (not sure how to write in words that the kids all took turns smashing the Pinata with a baseball bat…yikes sounds so brutal)
