We’re one week closer to Ella’s tenth birthday (WHAT?!) and I’m sharing another of my favorite birthdays ever. As cute as that first one was, it really required very little advanced planning and it was extremely economical. Her second birthday was a backyard barbeque and the only party we’ve ever throw where Kamin didn’t photograph every little detail. It wasn’t really until Ella’s third birthday that I realized how much I enjoyed party planning and enjoying every little detail of the day.
Part of my excitement that year was that I was pregnant with Sophie and no one in the world but us even know. We’d had a rough couple of years, with two early term losses, and getting pregnant wasn’t easy. I had either been pregnant, recovering from pregnancy, recovering from a miscarriage or taking fertility drugs for the previous three years and I was pretty exhausted. We were exactly twelve weeks along by the time of Ella’s party and decided it was the best possible way to announce our newest addition to friends and family.
We decided to have two parties that year — a small tea party in the morning with Ella’s closest friends and a larger party with our extended friends and family the next evening. We decided to host the tea party in Ella’s room, since it most closely matched our theme and we were only inviting a handful of friends. She was obsessed with the original Fancy Nancy book at the time, so we invited all of her friends to dress in their fanciest attire for the day. My dad built a toddler-height table and we put it right in the middle of her bedroom, set for the perfect brunch.
I spent the weeks before the party collecting little treasures to fill up these pink buckets for party favors. We shared feather boas, necklaces, crowns and more. The favors were one of the best parts of the day and the littlest girls loved playing dress up together.
For the centerpiece, I used an old sap bucket painted white and filled it with foil floral picks from the craft store. I found the star garland and glittery ornaments on the clearance Christmas aisle from the year before and saved them for this exact day!
It literally pains me to look back at these photographs of Ella and see how tiny and squishy she was. Her hair was still so curly and she was so excited about her fancy day. She chose that tutu and halter top from etsy herself and we stalked the mailbox for weeks waiting on its arrival. Glittery shoes from Walmart and happy meal accessories made her party outfit perfect!
One of the best parts of her party was a photobooth that my sister set up in our playroom. It was a simple black sheet, lights and a tripod, but it was the biggest hit at both parties. I have over a hundred candid shots of our party guests and they are all hilarious! You can see my original photobooth post here, if you’d like a good laugh.
My mom also thought it would be great to read Fancy Nancy to the party guests. I still crack up everytime I see her hat with that giant feather! They loved having her read to them and were all completely entranced.
We served each guest with an iced cupcake and a clear plastic cup full of different toppings. They each got to decorate their own cupcake or, at the very least, eat all of the goodies we provided!
The next night, we invited our extended family and closest couple friends over to celebrate. We asked everyone to come dressed in their “fanciest attire” but you never know how party guests will respond to your crazy requests (we’ve made plenty over the last ten years!). We were so surprised to see how into it all of our guests were and Ella was thrilled to see everyone so dressed up. This was the first time I spent serious money on a birthday cake and I’m telling you right now it was the best money I spent that whole year. I found an image of a cake I loved on the internet and a high school friend replicated it exactly. Not only was it beautiful, but it was unbelievably delicious. Think wedding cake delicious.
Even Josh got in on the fancy action and insisted on picking up a cape and hat from the party store. I thought he would be mortified to participate, but he loved it all as much as I did.
It’s hard to believe this was seven years ago. Our house was so different and we were all babies! This is definitely the party that started my crazy obsession, so no countdown was complete without sharing it with you here!
