Amelia celebrated her 4th birthday on Saturday with a Fancy Nancy butterfly garden party. If you're not between the ages of 4 and 7, you probably have no idea who Fancy Nancy is. (It's a fun book series about a girl named Nancy who likes to be fancy.) Amelia had six of her friends come (girls only) and they were all dressed up. We had so many fun decorations in the backyard and we survived about 15 minutes outside and then the rain drove us inside. It was unfortunate, but the girls didn't care and the party continued.
I had fun planning and finding all things butterfly over the last month and Amelia loved pointing out everything fancy that we could use at the party. I always love an excuse to try new projects.
Ben strung paper lanterns all over the backyard.
All the girls decorated butterfly wings to wear.
I had been waiting for an excuse to try making these tissue paper pom-poms. They were surprisingly easy and now I want to have more parties just to make more.
Amelia and I had fun one night decorating all these butterflies.
The party continued inside and it didn't take long for the girls to realize the pom-poms were fun to hit around.
They also decorated little bags and then they each made a butterfly necklace.
Ben had hidden a bunch of butterflies all over the backyard for the girls to do a butterfly hunt. He quickly found them all and re-hid them inside. The girls had fun searching for them, although the hunt was much faster in our small living room.
It was so fun to see all of the girls running around in their butterfly wings.
The lunch spread:
PB&J sandwiches and ham & cheese sandwiches and our favorite fancy French lemonade from Trader Joes.
Lemon scones, shaped as butterflies of course.
Fruit kabobs.
The girls are entertained by Ben while they eat. It was amusing to listen to the girls' conversations. At one point, they were all discussing their hair cuts.
The dessert spread:
In addition to cake and cupcakes, I couldn't resist making more cupcake pops.
I "drew" butterfly wings on wax paper using melted chocolate and then after they had hardened, I put them on the cupcakes. And nothing says fancy like paper doilies!
Lydia, Miriam, Lizzie, Amelia, Rachel, Alyssa, Taryn
We were going to have the girls plant a flower in a pot, but since we were inside, Ben quickly potted them to avoid crazy amounts of dirt inside, and we sent the girls home with one.
The backyard looked so sad after all the rain. Of course it cleared up right after the party and was sunny the rest of the day.
The pom-poms didn't do too well in the rain.
We had a little family party later in the day and Amelia was spoiled with more presents and cake.
Amelia is such a happy, creative, sweet girl and it's so fun to see her learning new things everyday. She keeps us laughing and being silly. And she definitely keeps us fancy! Happy birthday Amelia!
On a side note, she had her 4-year check-up today. She was actually excited to get her shots because she wanted to prove how brave she could be. She didn't flinch or cry or make a sound. She got to pick out a sticker and she promptly stuck it on her arm. I had to rip it off several hours later and she screamed and cried about the pain for a long time.
