Arabella's Owl Birthday Party

In keeping with her owl obsession, she decided she wanted an Owl themed birthday party.  For a few months now, I have been checking out Pintrest for ideas and I was able to find a lot of cute ideas that Arabella really loved.  We had beautiful weather last weekend which was perfect since we had it in the backyard - she insisted on having her party with all of her friends (all 27 of them) in our yard!  I am so lucky and thankful to my Mom and Lori who were here to help with all of the prep work.  Lori came in on Thursday night and we got to work on the loot bags and other decorating prep that needed to be done.  Grammie helped with food prep and keeping Arabella occupied while we decorated the backyard on Sunday morning.  I don't think I would have been able to pull it off without you two - THANK YOU! 

Loot bag prep with Lori!

Yummy sweet and salty pretzel snaps for the party...we literally made thousands of these. Pretty easy and they were a hit!

We decorated the cabana in the backyard as "Arabella's Owl Nest"  - she loved all the streamers and owls that Lori and I made.   There were lots of balloons, one of Arabella's favorites.  We also hung her pinata in the middle - it was perfect for when it was time to break into it.  The kids did a craft - decorating foam owls, they played with the hula hoops, and loved the bounce house.  I also put Jay in charge of making a "owl tree" out of press board so that the kids could get their pictures taken with it - it came out great!  We hired Arabella's babysitters to help with kid control and it worked perfectly!  Emily and Megan are awesome and all of the kids had so much fun with them. 

I made the cupcakes for everyone but Arabella had picked out a cake on Pintrest, and I knew that it was totally out of my cake making ability. So one of my friends recommended a local woman who makes cakes - Made by Maya - in Beaconsfield and she did an amazing job! I feel in love with it as soon as I saw it and so did Arabella! It was perfect. I decided to make cupcakes for everyone since it was easier and there would be no waiting for the cake to be cut. We saved it for later in the evening after we opened her presents and Arabella was able to blow out her candles again!

We also saved the opening of presents for when all the guests left. I decided that with 27 kids and some parents it would be too much chaos. It was nice to be able to do it at a relaxing pace too. Arabella was totally spoiled by her friends. She loved opening her gifts and we have decided to hold some of them for "rainy days" since getting to use all of them at once would be total overload. She received a lot of nice things - but I think her favorites were the Playmobil sets. She loves to play with them and had fun putting them together.

Arabella had a great party and it was totally worth all the time, effort and planning that I put into it. She had a wonderful day and loved being with all her friends and family. Her smile and the joy on her face was priceless! Thank you everyone for making her day so special!