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A Crafty Birthday!

27 September, 2011; Filed Under: family & home

We like at-home birthday parties. They feel cozier, and they’re typically much more frugal! Kathryn is turning 11, an age where little-kid themes no longer cut it — but I never want to rush my kids to grow up and have a party that’s not age-appropriate. Ideally, of course, the party suits the interests and tastes of the birthday girl. So for Kathryn’s birthday this year, she decided she’d like to have a flower-themed crafty party.

The birthday girl helped ice the cupcakes. Although I would’ve liked to have some fantastic flower-looking icing on the cupcakes, my icing skills are not in top form, so we opted for simply using pink icing with sprinkles (I made a point NOT to read the ingredients on the icing can), and arranged our cupcakes in a flower pattern on our cake stand.

icing cupcakes

One bouquet of flowers was given to Kathryn by her daddy, and one was given to her by Brandon and his fiancee Diane. All we bought in the way of decorations were come cute paper plates and napkins in fall colors — with flowers, of course.

birthday goodies

11th birthday party

We started out with snacks, and decide to go ahead and sing the birthday song so everyone could dig into the birthday cupcakes. “Happy Birthday to Kathryn…”

singing birthday song

Thanks to Pinterest, I have a gazillion or so nifty craft ideas. Kathryn and I wanted a craft that was flower-themed, and that would be a cute make-it-yourself sort of party favor. Our guests’ ages ranged from 8 to 11, so it needed to be fairly simple, but not too childish. We decided on felt flower headbands.

The only supplies we needed were:

  • felt in several different colors
  • assorted buttons (I keep a jar of them)
  • plain headbands (I bought two packs at Target)
  • hot glue
  • needle and thread
  • scissors

Thankfully, Lindsey and my friend Wendy both helped with the craft, because I just don’t have that many hands! The girls picked the headbands and felt colors they wanted, we cut out felt circles of various sizes, and when the girls had arranged them in the pattern they wanted, we helped them sew the felt circles together with a button on top. When the felt flowers were completed, I hot glued them to the cloth-covered headbands.

Making the headbands:

bday craft

The girls all seemed to love their cute new headbands, and wore them for the rest of the party!

crafty girls

After a few lively (and entertaining!) rounds of charades, Kathryn opened her gifts. I always request no gifts, but apparently people just really like to give gifts — which is fine, but I dislike the have-to-buy-something feeling. And I want it to be about the friends, not the gifts. But her friends gave thoughtful, not overly-expensive gifts, like a gift card to Kathryn’s favorite frozen yogurt place, or this cute crafty gift from another friend:

bday gift

I’m so proud of the young lady my littlest girl is growing into. It’s hard sometimes, watching my baby grow up, but I wouldn’t trade this for anything.

Jamie

Wife, mom, grandma. Introvert who finds joy in good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Fitness enthusiast and personal trainer. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand.

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Michelle
Michelle
27 September, 2011 10:52 am

What a beautiful day! Wishing Kathryn a very Happy belated Birthday! (Our youngest is turning double digits this year…sniff)

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Alicia
Alicia
27 September, 2011 12:49 pm

What a fun party!! Both of my girls would have loved that theme. Happy Birthday to Kathryn!!

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Kris @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Kris @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
27 September, 2011 1:07 pm

Happy Belated Birthday to Kathryn. Looks like such a fun party! I love the way the headbands turned out. I bet Megan would like something like that.

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Dorie
Dorie
27 September, 2011 2:16 pm

A flower themed birthday looks like sweet fun! The headbands look great. Thanks for stopping by, it is nice to ‘meet you.’

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Penny
Penny
27 September, 2011 9:54 pm

It looks like a super cute party! I never thought to have the guests make their own party favor. You are so smart! 🙂 I laughed at the picture of the girl sitting on the table doing the craft because that is so my kid . She would sit on the table instead of the chair like everyone else. Happy birthday Kathryn!!!!

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Diana
Diana
27 September, 2011 9:55 pm

Rachel had a great time! Thanks so much!

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MissMOE
MissMOE
27 September, 2011 11:01 pm

Happy Birthday, Kathryn! What a perfectly lovely party. The felt flowers seem like a fun craft.

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Tiger's Mum
Tiger's Mum
28 September, 2011 3:15 am

Happy Birthday, Kathryn! What an fantastic idea to have a craft birthday!

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Jeanne
Jeanne
28 September, 2011 3:48 am

What a lovely young lady she is, too. Happy Birthday, Kathryn

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Elaine
Elaine
28 September, 2011 11:04 am

Thanks for sharing this post, I have now an idea on how we are going to celebrate the birthday of my daughter.

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Marsha Cooper
Marsha Cooper
28 September, 2011 3:05 pm

Looks like an awesome fun time!

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MarshaMarshaMarsha
MarshaMarshaMarsha
29 September, 2011 12:11 am

precious! the flower headbands are a great idea too.

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Sue
Sue
29 September, 2011 6:58 pm

This looks so peaceful, but that’s probably the lack of a soundtrack! Blessings!

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Jamie
Jamie
Author
Reply to  Sue
30 September, 2011 8:52 am

Sue,
Ha ha! The 1st two photos were pretty peaceful, but five giggly gals with sugar in their systems were not all that quiet! 😉

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Abby
Abby
4 October, 2011 10:14 pm

The headbands look great! What a fun birthday party. Happy Birthday (belated) to Kathryn!

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