A Fairy Happy Birthday Party: Part 1

Get ready for some serious birthday party photos, people.

Gabriela had the sweetest, most magical fairy birthday party ever.  

This little fairy rode her bike to her party at Lincoln Park, her favorite park.

This is one of my favorite shots of Gabriela on her party day. It totally captures her excitement about the day.  

 Of course she wore her birthday crown that Auntie Liss and I made for her 2nd birthday.

Fairy wings, fairy tutu, and fairy face paint completed the ensemble.

 

I am so glad I decided to go easy on the decorations. Simple is just better most of the time. I got some paper lanterns, Auntie Liss brought some flower garlands, and I picked up some super cute fabric to use as a tablecloth on our one and only table at the party.

 The fairies had simple and delicious fairy menu - baby carrots, snap peas, and mini cherry tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, peanut butter pretzels, and pirate booty.  

Nothing that required extra cooking, assembling, or other preparation. 

Then there were the birthday cupcakes in flower petal papers.  Lane baked the cupcakes and made the frosting.  We used blackberries that we had just picked a few days earlier to dye the frosting and decorate the cupcakes.  I am officially a fan of piped frosting. It's so much faster and looks way better. How am I just now discovering this???

 The whole setting at the park was perfectly fairytastic!  We used an area that is not reservable - it's kind of hidden in the corner of the park where there are lots of cool trees and hydrangea bushes and it's far away from the playground.  Every time we visited or drove by the park I scoped out the area to make sure it wasn't an area of high demand. 

 We made fairy wands, the girls all had fairy wings thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, and I made fairy tutus for everyone.  As the girls arrived they got their fairy wings and tutus, received some bubbles for blowing, and then were directed to get their fairy face paint, make their wands, or have a snack.

The birthday girl "blowing" out her candles, fairy wand in hand.  The only things that disappointed me about the party was that I forgot to bring Gabriela's fairy gardens that she made and that we couldn't get the candles to light because it was so breezy. But that breeze and the shade made the temperature perfect on an otherwise hot and sunny day. 

We all had a wonderful time, and I have to admit, I was kind of bummed when the party was all over. Thank goodness for all the help I had.  Lane made the cupcakes and frosting, did the dishes, loaded and unloaded the van, climbed up high and decorated.  Grandma and Grandpa provided fairy wings, Auntie Liss did face painting, Auntie Adie helped the kids make fairy wands. It was totally a team effort!