The Pirate Princess Party

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!  We had a packed weekend so I am recuperating! My parents were in town for the Kid's party and Easter.  We had a great Good Friday service at Grace and her party on Saturday.  And then Easter service on Sunday morning followed by a family Easter dinner at home to round out the celebrations.  And now the party...

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The Details:

Here are the invites for the party that has been making me Insane Crafty Woman for the past month or so.
We had the illustration done by a friend of mine from church who is a graphic designer/illustrator. I told her that it was a "pirate princess party" and asked that she incorporate a little girl with a poufy skirt, boots and an eyepatch. She looked at some Facebook pictures of the Kid and this was the result.

I love what she came up with! You should have seen the Kid's face when she saw these. She said incredulously, "Mama, that's me!". We don't get that reaction that often...

I printed the digital images from Shutterfly onto matte photo paper and pasted the images onto chartreuse/lime green cardstock from JoAnn's (they were having a crazy sale!) and rounded the edges.

 

I got these envelopes and dot labels from my favorite stationery/gift shop in Franklin, Tennessee, Rock Paper Scissors.

Topped off with a fun purple envelope label, we were good to go...

Next up, the decor!

We had our party at a popular Nashville play space for toddlers, The Monkey's Treehouse. If you are in Nashville and have never been, RUN, don't walk and book your next party there!  We have been there for various parties at least four times in the past year and it is awesome every time.  You book your time, they provide paper goods + drinks and you can either order food or bring whatever you want.  And they clean up for you. LOVE. THEM. I met the owner of the Treehouse before the party and she was so friendly and her staff was super helpful.

Food

• chicken nuggets (even though I watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution) and tea sandwiches
• mixed fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, pineapple and grapes - cancels out the nuggets)

• chocolate covered pretzels and "puppy chow" chex mix in the paper cones
• Stewart's soda's and bottled waters

• cupcakes - from Publix (I *heart* them)

Cupcake toppers and cupcake wrappers were made by a friend of mine from high school (who BTW, has two of the most beautiful children that I have ever seen) as a gift for the Kid. 

Food stands - The Liberty of London for Target line that everyone in the design/fashion blogosphere has been raving about struck the Drama home. Although the clothes make me look like a crazy bag lady or 70's housewife (those types of florals don't look good on me!), I did pick up several of their storage boxes a while back and realized after several other failed attempts to make something on my own that they would be perfect flipped upside down for food stands, since the bright green matched the pink, purple and green decor.

Paper cones were made of scrapbook paper hot glued to hold its shape.

For the kids, I packed their food into individual gable boxes (like the ones everyone and their mother used for out of town boxes for their weddings a few years back).

Gold "doubloons" glued to the sides of the gable boxes

The box in the foreground with the ribbon was for a friend whose precious son has allergies to wheat, dairy, eggs, corn, soy and nuts - so he got some special goodies picked out for him (and God bless his mother - it is hard work!).  Here is what was in most of the kid's packs.

And the pirate princess herself!

She *may or may not* be holding a bottle of grog. And as I predicted, she refused to wear the eyepatch.  Not for lack of bribery with M&Ms trying.  Here are a few other mateys who came along for the ride.

We will possibly revisit the pirate princess. After a proper nap and Easter candy.

Favors were treasure chest boxes from Oriental Trading Company, filled with pirate-y loot: gold chocolate coins, tattoos, bandanas, necklaces and kaleidoscopes. The girls got tutus as well to take home.  I had thought to hand the eye patches out earlier, but I thought that limiting the depth perception with a bunch of 3 year olds wasn't such a bright idea.

The best reaction was from one of the older sister of the Kid's friend who was a little bummed that she didn't have a tutu. When I said I had extra ones and she could take it home, you would have thought I handed her the moon. Love kids.

There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth when the party was over. As evidenced by this sad face.

Poor baby.  Felt a lot better when we opened gifts at home a few hours later.

I loved this party and it was so much fun to brainstorm!