Our story of getting Adessa is an arduous one..... a couple years of clomid/fertility treatments, a freak allergic reaction, a random ovulation, and a great big answer to prayers. Adessa was born premature and very sick. Adessa's story is HERE and we are VERY VERY VERY blessed and grateful to both be here and alive :) Last year Ads had a big Birthday party and invited all of her school class so this year meant no big party. I told Ads she could invite 2 friends from school and then Franky (Hugh and Mary's granddaughter) and Emma (friend from Church) to come with us to see "Brave." This was a hard thing for Ads to do because there are a number of girls and boys in her class that she really likes, but her choice was made and our movie party ensued.
I decided to have a RAINBOW themed Birthday for Ads this year. Last year we had a costume party and a Halloween themed Birthday. Halloween is Ads favourite holiday, so we celebrated big in costume last year. This year it was all about Rainbows. I made Rainbow cupcakes for her cake. Quite simply take your vanilla cupcake mix and divide it into bowls, colour the mix in the different bowls using food colouring the colours you want in your cakes, then spoon one drop of each coloured mix into the cupcake wrappers. When the cupcakes bake the colours mix and you end up with the most AMAZING cupcakes I have ever seen.
Here in England the custom for Birthdays is for the Birthday child to wear a Birthday badge. I decided to make Ads a Birthday badge adapted from a flower pin craft I made for the girls party bags. I am one who likes to make things if I can rather than buying it, plus, I have noticed that it makes my kids feel extra special when they get to sport a one of a kind-er :)
The girls arrived and we headed to the train station. When I planned the party I had forgotten that my car can only seat 4 passengers and I had 5! So I went to plan B, and rather than going to Bluewater we took the train to Bromley S. and went to the Empire Cinema's. Here the kiddo's are on the train.
We got the kids each a snack box with popcorn, a sweetie, and a drink.
The nice man working at the theatre gave Ads a free popcorn for being the Birthday girl, and he even let her choose if she wanted sweet or salty corn. She nicely shared her popcorn with the others until they each got their own snack boxes opened. It was so much fun watching the girls during the movie. All the girls sat together on a row and John, William, and I sat on the row behind them. I LOVE how excited girls get about things, they are such sweet blessings.
Along with Birthday badges, and sending your cake home with the kids, party bags are a UK Birthday party tradition. I decided to have a little fun with the party bags since there were just the 4 of them and put in some Rainbow themed homemade goodies. I know that some people will look at this and think I am CRAZY, but this is the part of being a Mom that I really really love. One thing I don't mind is hard work, I love it, I live for it and become exhausted by it. I found really cute Rainbow printables on this website HERE.
I LOVE lOvE love tie dye :) I have been tie dying for years and pretty much have a wardrobe full of the stuff. Since all of the undershirts were on sale for back to school I was able to get packs of shirts for pretty inexpensive. They don't sell tie dye kits here like you can buy at Michael's so I bought pink, yellow, and blue dye. I was really pleased with the way the shirts turned out.
I found this really cute dahlia felt flower pin craft from pinterest. The instructions are found HERE. I decided to carry on the Rainbow coloured theme for the pin.
I made little baskets out of cotton yarn I dyed from my left over tie dye dye. They had coloured cotton yarn in the shop, but it was too expensive so I bought white and dyed it :) I cut 3 yard length pieces of coloured yarn and then tied them together. I dipped them in PVA or Elmer's type glue and then wrapped them around balloons and then sat them upside down in plastic cups to dry. I let them dry in my sunny window for a couple of days. I used as much string as I thought was necessary to create enough of a basket to hold the goodies. I made Easter baskets like this when I was Ads age with my mom. The crafty is deeply genetic :) I loved them and thought they turned out great.
I have a thing for netting. After moving to the UK I quickly learnt that ribbon is really really expensive and tulle which is a softer version of netting is very rare.........however, you can get great colours of netting online here for pretty cheap. I LOVE netting. I think it is a really quick and easy way to spruce things up and add some colour and dimension in decorating. I made the tulle puffs on the baskets and then again I used them on the Birthday packages. My mom is the Queen of gift wrapping. The woman can wrap a package so beautifully you NEVER want to open it. I am 1/3 the woman and mom my mother was, but I am trying my best to be my best. I think they turned out really cute.
I made the cupcake picks from the printable.
I used different coloured pieces of felt for the place mats and then coordinated with matching balloons.
I made Ads a ruffled Rainbow skirt for her Birthday and she wore it on her party day. William is wearing an old tie dye shirt I made for Ads when we went to the Dude Ranch when William was just a baby......and yes he wore tie dye as well.
At the Dude Ranch. Mom, me, my SIL Shannon, SIL Sherri, and the kids. They had just been fishing :) We are all sporting our Tie Dye skills.
Am I a blessed woman or what!!! Look at these two little miracle precious children.
Ads 2.5 lbs at Birth Liam 4lbs. at Birth
They say dynamite comes in small packages ;)
After the cinema we came home for Rainbow fruits and Pizza!
Making her wish.
Out with the candles.
After dinner I let Ads open her gifts, the girls jumped on the trampoline and then I returned them to their homes. Ads had a great time and the girls seemed to enjoy themselves as well. This was among my favourite Birthday parties I have done for Ads along with our Birthday Tea Party I did a couple of years back HERE.
I had a mother who made every moment of my childhood a magical experience and I hope to be able to give the same to my daughter and son. You have plenty of years of responsibility and reality in this life that I believe a childhood is for magic, learning, creativity, play, and excitement. My grandmother once shared some wise words with me that I choose to live by "you don't spoil your kids by what you buy them, but by what you allow them to get away with." I believe this 100%. I am trying hard to give my kids all that I can physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally, but I am also trying to teach them discipline, respect, patience, and reverence. Parenting is tough, but it is the most important work I have to do......and as I said earlier, I don't mind hard work :) Happy Birthday party day my beautiful child who lives in the land of the fairies, I love you.
