avery's pinkalicious party

Avery loves the book Pinkalicious.

We've read it approximately 853 times now - so seemed fitting to celebrate her 4th birthday with a Pinkalicious theme.

For me, maintaining the authenticity of the story was way more important than covering everything in pink.  

Keeping that in mind, the most important element of the party - aside from the pink cupcakes - was Avery's outfit.

To make the shirt, I took one of her old button-down blouses and removed the collar. Then I dyed it pink, sewed lace on the top and sleeves, and added a tiny pink bow. I found her skirt at Target and her wings at Walmart. Her crown and wand were from Oriental Trading Co. I bought some sweet little sparkle shoes to finish the look. 

(photo from http://www.amazon.com/)

I am beyond blessed to know a super-talented cupcake maker/wedding cake baker in town.

I sent her the picture of the cupcakes in the story, and this is what she came up with...

They tasted as good as they looked!
If you live in my town and want to use her, let me know - I'll be glad to pass on her name!

Since we're currently living with my Mother-in-Law while we serach for our new home, we decided to have Avery's party outdoors in her backyard. The weather was warm, but nice and sunny.

The beautiful thing about outdoor parties is that you can get away with doing way less decorating. A fact that is super important when you've managed to get in waaaay over your head and make dolls for your party guests.

I made a garland out of paper doileys for the cake table (super, super easy), and a fabric bunting from some awesome Tanya Whelan fabric I bought on etsy.

For the table decorations, I put cabbage roses in vases and placed little bottles filled with green jellybeans (the cure for Pinkatitis!)

Every guest at the party received a wand (from Oriental Trading - I embellished them with ribbon) and their own crown (also from Oriental Trading).

The kiddos had pink lemonade, strawberries, and watermelon for their snack.

And then sat on a blanket while I read Pinkalicious.

After the story, we played Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake.

I looked everywhere for a cute pre-made Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake game, but had no luck.

SO - I decided to make the cupcake myself out of fabric...

I'm just going to go ahead and say that making that game may have been the thing that seriously pushed me over the edge.

Between that and the 13 dolls that I made, I'm pretty sure that I knocked off at least 3 years of my life expectancy.

Ahhh... lesson learned...

Next up: catching butterflies with butterfly nets...

until they got too frustrated and just used their hands!

Then cupcake time.

After cupcakes, Avery opened her presents.

Before leaving for home, the little girls selected their own Pinkalicious doll to take home with them.

I've gotta say - I was happy to see them leave...
Wow.

But this picture makes it totally worth it all...

All photos (with the exception of the cover of the Pinkalicious book) by my beautiful, talented friend Sonya Balentine. She just started her own photography business. Check her out. She's awesome. And wonderful. And awesome.