It started with Steve and my birthdays, two days apart, at the end of the month. We added Sophia in there, right smack in between those days and then James at the beginning of the month. Four out of six of our family members celebrate another trip around the sun within three weeks of one another. That means, that there are a lot of candles, a lot of cake and ice cream and a lot of wrapping paper. And I love every minute of it because birthdays are my favorite.
This year, I suggested to Sophia and we could combine the family party for her and James and celebrate with a "unicorn and dragon theme." She was completely on board with the idea -- both celebrating with her brother and then having a solitary unicorn party with her friends two weeks later. I had never planned a joint party before (double the cake, double the decorations, etc), but I love how it turned out. And I especially loved that I was able to re-use the unicorn decorations again for her friend party.
I went with a green/pink/slight rainbow color scheme and decorated the usual canvas backdrop above the cake table. (I later commented to my mom that I never guessed when I bought this canvas to hang in the dining room seven years ago that it would be covered and used over and over again with various decorations for all of my parties). I love how it turned out from just using random supplies in my craft closet. I drew the dragon and unicorn and then incorporated the kids' birthday ages on it. It ended up hanging for over a month in that room before I begrudgingly took it down.
For Sophia's cake, I opted to use the universal unicorn symbol (ears, unicorn, eyes/eyelashes and flowers). James' dragon looked a lot like the alligator that I made for Sam's rainforest party, with a cake body this time and dragon wings. Jimmy laughed every time he walked by it that day. And ... the nose of the dragon was officially deemed to be HIS cupcake because (like every single child at this age), he sampled some of the frosting when my back was turned before the party!
Fresh flowers make every party better! And these lasted for two weeks!
The girls surprised me by working on their own decorations for the party that morning. They used Bunch 'Ems to construct a unicorn ...
... and a dragon! They did this without a single template or anything. Just their own creativity. I loved them so much, that we made a place on one of the tables for them.
"Always be yourself unless you can be a unicorn. Then always be a unicorn." I love that message and promptly printed it and put it in a frame left over from a previous party.
Sophia helped make the birthday banner to hang on the mantle and it was way more glitter then I had planned on. But I love how it turned out.
And I really loved that we used some ribbon that once belonged to my grandma. It was in my ribbon box and I recognized it immediately. I like to believe that she smiled as I weaved it through each and every piece of cardstock and was with us that day.
Again, Sophia helped to paint and design the "2" and the "7" for the party. Dragon scales for Jimmy and jewels from my craft closet for Sophia. A perfect fit for those two. And the tissue puffs turned out great too. Some drawing, some cutting and some gluing and now the kids have them in their rooms to remember this party.
Sophia picked out a special shirt for her day and smiled the biggest that I have seen her smile lately as she took in all of the decorations and especially her cake.
The kids took turns opening their presents and it was so fun to watch them with each and every item that our guests had handpicked for them.
Opening gifts with Momma:
Ready to make a wish and blow out her candles:
Blowing out his candle ... it took a couple of attempts, but he did it!
Happy, happy birthday to my February Birthday Babies!
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