simplifying celebrations: a pretty party

A perfectly pretty princess party. Planned, designed and created by young children.

Ours was a choice to step back. To have our almost 4-year-old enjoy the magic of planning and preparing her own birthday celebration. To marvel at her little mind's wonderously big ideas planned on paper and hung from the ceiling or set upon the table. A choice to simply smile when our children's squiggles of cake frosting dripped out uneven. A choice not to smooth out the frosting bumps—or any other birthday party planning bumps. To grin because the decorations they hung were a pastel amalgamation of everything pretty we had.

The birthday party wasn't perfect. It was perfectly beautiful.

 

why simplify celebrations? 

The week before this celebration, our home was full of the buzz and hum of a creative household planning, baking, and making. The marvelous making of memories too. In a time of party-planner designed, expensive children's birthday party celebrations and rented venues, our stay at home birthday party was an unusual option. For us it was a calm, and creative, choice. It is how we've chosen to celebrate every time.

The children decorated with almost all of the colorful assortment of birthday decorations we already had—rainbow-hued eye candy for the little girl guests. One of their handmade decoration additions was a paper chain hung among paper globes, balloons, and pretty pennant banners. Using what you have, and making what you want, is inexpensive. And creative.

Children will see their imaginative ideas come to fruition. Our children's every-day drawings are full of grand inventions—the most magical never-built tree houses and architecturally or economically improbable dream bedroom plans. So many dream-filled ideas and inventive contraptions. But one sweet design, our little one's layered princess birthday cake, was baked and built. Seeing a design to completion gives any designer, inventor, architect, or engineer a sense of successful accomplishment—grown-ups and children alike.  

The cake layers were baked in pans we had—a round cake pan, and smaller and then even smaller lunch tins. The children decorated the layered cake with fun-to-make buttercream frosting squiggles, wiggled on with a pastry bag and decorator tips. The rose-colored frosting bloomed its pink hue from natural dye; and the cake was baked with wholesome, natural, real ingredients. If you haven't baked cake or cupcakes from scratch, a simple cake recipe is as easy as baking from a mix. It is healthier than buying from the store bakery, and so much fun for little helpers too. Children love to bake, especially if it's their own birthday cake. 

Leave some things to the imagination. Our daughter's princess costume collection was soon discovered by the birthday guests, and all were thrilled to parade around in glittery garb and sparkly shoes. Our young girl's birthday party was left unstructured to allow for plenty of this magical pretend play together. 

Keep it simple. Keep it small. We invited only a few of our daughter's closest childhood friends to join our own children for a smaller, quieter, calmer, memorable celebration full of laughter and play.

An at-home party is wonderfully retro like aprons and pinafores, home gardens, canning your own vegetables and baking homemade bread—an old-fashioned birthday party of a simpler times. Simplicity. Simply enough reason to celebrate this way. 

On our child's real birthday day, we always have a special birthday celebration with just our own family. A quiet remembrance of the special-ness of the day. With a favorite dessert (birthday child's choice), when-you-were-a-baby tales, birthday candle wishes, and laughing late into the birthday evening. But, preparing and enjoying a lavish-looking, but simply made, birthday celebration to share with friends brings a well-being feeling of do-it-yourself satisfaction, creativity, and smiles to our little celebration dreamers and planners.

Because sometimes the preparations—the baking, making, decorating, and dreaming—are just as wonderful as the celebration itself.

{Our simple party ended with sweet good-byes—pretty homemade rock candy for all (from our rock candy tree). A party idea for your own princess birthday party...or for a fun candy-making afternoon.}

Cherish our own handmade party printables in our shop at you make do^®...

{some of our party kits in our shop, below}

   

 

 ©heather cahoon • wordplayhouse®

 

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