A 10th Birthday Party For My Girl

I am not a big fan of the mainstream birthday themes, so it was with great hope that I asked Brianna early this year if we could something different instead.  How about the theme TEN?!  After I told her my idea--making it about her 10 favorite things she was all on board, and it turned out really really sweet.  

First off, not only was it outside in SEATTLE in NOVEMBER, but it DID NOT RAIN, and IT WAS SUNNY! There was a definite chill in the air, but Mother Nature was smiling down on this one. 

The table was really simple to include 10 of her favorite snacks:

carrot sticks w/ ranch dressing

Hawaiian chips

jalapeno cheetos

apples with caramel dip

gummy bears

oreos

licorice

oranges

water (we forgot the hot chocolate...whoops.)

a TEN layer cake

Let's talk about the cake, shall we?  It was a pretty easy project in my head.  I found an actual 10 layer cake recipe, thinking not only could I pull it off but that I would make the cake batter from scratch too--and let's color it purple while we are at it!

2 attempts later at 10:30pm I returned from the store with butter yellow cake mixes and more eggs.  

I made my famous homemade fudgy frosting, but I would like to officially announce that there is no shame in buying cake mixes, okay? 

Some sweet advice:  Get disposal aluminum cake pans to make the baking process go faster.  Originally the idea was to make 10 really thin layers and bake them individually, but instead I made 6 normal 8 inch cakes and then sliced each layer in 2 (I had 2 extra layers for back-up, which I used btw;)

My glass cake stand looked really plain so I made some tiny bunting with paper triangles and ribbon.  I hot glued it to the cake stand because hot glue is awesome and just peels right off. And the tablecloth is a vintage sheet that I happened to find in my stash right beforehand.

I think skinny candles are so pretty! And the girl blowing them out, too!

I made some number labels to put on all the food as some simple yet fun decor.  My printer broke so I had to free hand these babies--don't judge.

I covered the water bottles with some paper because well... it just looked cuter.

These fringe streamers kept me up way too late to admit.

One of the activities was to make Origami!  

 A wonderful woman from church is an expert and instructed the girls on making Brianna's favorite -- a butterfly.

My FAVORITE thing.  I blew up a huge picture of Brianna  ($4 at Kinko's) and then made paper

party hats to play "Pin the Hat on the Birthday Girl."  

The take-home bags were really fun!  We gave each girl a bag of her 10 favorite things:

fingernail polish

sprite

scented hand sanitizer

tattoos

hot chocolate packet

candle

hubba bubba bubble gum

rolos

lavender sachet (we picked and dried the lavender and I sewed them)

cd of her 10 favorite songs (she illustrated the cover)

I started to clean up a bit and then had to run over to snap this picture.  The girls had made wishes and then sent the balloons off! 

 Verdict:

A Perfect 10

This post is sponsored by my friend Jen with our actual text message:
Me: Done! 
Jen:  Can't wait to see pictures.  I expect to see them edited and posted by the end of the night;)