Valentine Afternoons

I love Valentines. It is really one of my favorite holidays because I love red and pink, I love glitter, I love cards, I love words, and I love making Valentines. So this year we had not one but two Valentine Card Making Lunch Parties. The first was with our friends and the second with members of our family.



I found this cute apple idea on Pinterest. And got the vintage looking paper plates, napkins, and cupcake picks at Hobby Lobby. I set out all kinds of papers, stamps, beads, glitter, etc for the craft time.




FRIEND TIME!!!


FAMILY TIME!!!


I got a bit smarter after the first party and changed the tablecloth to a vinyl wipe down one from Walmart.
Now this is a craft table that is being well used. Chaotic and Messy and Beautiful and Inspiring.

A Button Party

Well, yes, we did have two birthday parties this year. Delaney wanted to have a party for the girls in her preschool class so we had a Button Party. We got this great idea from a friend of ours who did this when her daughter was young. She got the idea from the September pages of "A Time to Keep" by Tasha Tudor, which was my favorite book when I was little.

We spent a weekend at the cabin making invitations and headbands for the party. We got a package of invitations from Walmart for under $5 and glued buttons on the front to follow our theme.



We bought packs of all colored stretchy headbands from Ross and sewed buttons on them for party favors. During the party, I stretched them around a big vase for decoration and then let each girl choose their favorite one at the end.


I decorated with a flag banner that I got from Target. I sewed buttons to the middle of each one. Then I enlarged pictures from each one of Delaney's past birthday parties and hung them on a clothesline with clothespins.


I love this picture of Delaney zooming around on her scooter waiting for all her friends to arrive.



The highlight of our party was the Button Store. Each girl received a little jar filled with buttons that they could spend in the button store. I filled the store with things from the dollar store and put signs on each item telling how many buttons it cost. I made each girl a shopping bag with their Initial on it made of felt buttons that I got from Oriental Trading.


While the girls took turns shopping in the button store, the rest of us made button necklaces with beads and buttons and hot pink plastic cord.


CamiCakes made our cupcakes and Delaney glued buttons onto flat wooden picks to decorate the tops.




Delaney was a lucky girl to celebrate with her friends and both of her grandmothers.

It was such a fun party. I love seeing the joy and celebration in the eyes of little kids and I have always thought birthdays should be the biggest and best day of the year. But now we are off to take a really long nap!!