Ballerina Party

You all know that Megan turned 6 last week.
Sniff, sniff.
We usually have their birthday parties at a gymnastic center in town that all the kids love to go to.
It's easy, you take presents, a little bit of food, and go.
Little decorations and no cleaning your house.

Well, this year, Meg had other plans.
Her dance teacher is also her Kindergarten Teacher Assistant.
Megan came home from school one day and told me that she was having a Ballerina Birthday Party and that she had invited Ms. Kelly (her teacher).
We were still a good 2 months away from her party so I pretty much laughed and just said okay.
Next thing I knew, she came out of her dance class and all the kids were telling their Moms she invited them  to her "Ballerina Party".
Okay, I decided at this point this child was serious and the party was already starting to be set in motion so I better get on board.  lol

I didn't really know what a "Ballerina Party" consisted of so I put on my Preschool Teacher's Hat and started trying to think of creative things we could do.

Here's what we came up with.
Warning:  LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of photos to follow!!!

Megan requested Nachos and Cheese and we also had pizza we ordered from an Italian Restaurant in town.
We had tons of food.
I was so worried that we wouldn't have enough.
Better to have too much than not enough!!
Special thanks to my mom for making the adorable, delicious cupcakes, pretzels, cookies and probably more I'm forgetting right now.
And also for working tirelessly in the kitchen.  :)
This is the back view of the food table.
What was the camera man thinking??!?

The guests were all sent Ballerina Invitations and we requested they wear their favorite dance costume or fancy dress.

This is the view of the arts/crafts table where they would be making their "magic wands".
We also had a basket of dress up clothing for anyone that may want/need something a little fancy to wear.
Most of the kids came fully prepared.  :)

My dear husband took pictures for me and I told him he is fired.
I was so busy setting up and working at the party that I didn't realize what types of pictures he was taking.
These are some of the best shots I could find but he didn't get any of the whole "party scene".
He's also 6'5 so pictures are from his view point.  :)
And...while I'm on the subject...I would catch him socializing with his buddies and have to fuss at him to come take pictures and then he would take (literally) 20 pictures of Meg opening one present (I could have made it animated if I wanted to) and then he'd go sit back down.
Again...
FIRED.
He's fired.
(then again, Meg informed me yesterday that we've fired him from a lot of things (like making the bed, helping with homework, etc) so I think he may be the smarter of the two of us).
I'm noticing a trend here.

Ahem.
Love you honey.  :)
(or maybe he should be saying that to me???)

Moving on.

I know the pictures will look a little crazy with the faces missing but I did not ask for permission and wanted to protect their privacy since I didn't want to post photos without permission.
My girls were mortified when they saw me distorting the faces of their friends!!  :)

We had the cutest little centerpieces, which are hard to see here.
They were clay pots with the number 6 on them and brightly colored pinwheels.
So cute!!

This is my friend Lee, who was a TREMENDOUS help getting things done for this party.

Don't know what I would have done without her!!
You can check out her new blog, This and That here.

They all patiently sat and watched the birthday girl open her gifts.
Notice Tim's bird's eye view.  :)

She could so be a fashion diva.
The girl loves clothes!
Notice her toothless smile.
She lost her first tooth a couple weeks ago!
Again, sniff. sniff.

Ms. Kelly brought lots of cool CD's and emceed the "dance" for us.
She even took requests!  :)
Gotta love that woman!!

I wish you could see all their expressions.
There were a lot of happy little children having a blast.
That made me one happy Momma!

Break it down girls!!!  :)

Ms. Kelly, best Kindergarten/Dance Teacher in the world!
Half the kids there either have her for dance or school or have in the past.

Making the magic wands.
Thanks to Megan's best friend's mommy and my sister-n-law Lacy for helping out with this activity!
I think it was one of the favorites!
Each child got to make a wand and take it home.

Here's my good friend Lee again.
Everyone needs a friend like her!

At one point we really did fire the camera guy.
My friend just looked at him and said, "Give me that camera!!" to which he happily obliged.
I will have to try to take it over next time, I am always just so busy at parties that I don't think I could take on one more task!
Does anyone else have this trouble?

Not only was Ms. Kelly in charge of the dancing, she was a face painting PRO.
The kids LOVED this!!
She even painted their faces and hands to match whatever outfit they had on.
She's awesome!

The line to face painting was long and never got shorter.
They just kept coming back for more!
Did I mention Ms. Kelly is a saint?
She was the last table open and it was almost dark when she finished!

Again, the kids LOVED this!
Lori and Lee could get a part time job painting nails if they ever needed to.  :)

This birthday girl had an awesome Ballerina Party for her 6th Birthday!!

I was a little nervous about it at first, but couldn't have been happier with the results!

We were very blessed because it had rained all week and the weather was perfect that evening!

My advice to anyone, take risks.

I know it doesn't seem like one, but for me, a Ballerina party with a whole house/yard full of people scared me to death!

I was so afraid we couldn't pull it off.

If Megan hadn't come up with the idea, we would have been right back at the gymnastics center.

Her idea forced me to be creative and think out of the regular old box.

I know this will be one of her most memorable birthdays ever!

Thanks again to all who helped!!!

Linking to:

Today's Creative Blog 

Sizzle Into Summer 

At the Picket Fence 

Serenity Now