Sophia's 12th Birthday

Sophia decided a long time ago that she would like to celebrate her 12th birthday with a Mardi Gras theme.  I thought that it was a fabulous idea because:

1) We had never done that theme before ...

2) It coincided perfectly with the time of year that we would be celebrating (easy to find decorations)

3) The colors (green, purple, gold) would make it fun for me to design the party around

She worked closely with me on many of the ideas so I knew that she definitely wanted a balloon arch; a piñata; dinner with friends at our house; and the same BINGO game that I put together for Sam's party a few months ago.

The balloon arch was a true labor of love because I made the mistake of simply buying the balloons and not the KIT, which has the plastic strip with holes in to make the arch easier to construct.  I ended up using ribbon and fishing line ... and a lot of prayer ... to get the whole thing put together.

In the end, it turned out great and you would never had known how much effort went into it.

The party favor table for Sophia's friend party included a table-top decoration that I made (I used some leftover feathers from her Peacock Party that was 6 years ago!), bags for the piñata loot, and the prize envelopes for the BINGO game.  Sophia had chosen lotion and body wash as her party favors.

The dinner table was set up with special cups, lots of beads and a tall glass filled with muddy buddies chex mix.  

The tall martini glass was part of a flower arrangement that I received years ago and saved, which was PERFECT for this event.

Before dinner, the girls opened their party favors and played BINGO.  They loved everything and commented that Sophia knows them all so well.

Sophia and her friend, Drew:

This girl was full of smiles as she opened her gifts:

Our guests:

The piñata was filled with a little bit of candy, but I made it more "teen girl" appropriate by adding other fun things like: face masks, chapstick, fun erasers, mechanical pencils (those are treasured by middle school girls), bracelets, etc.

Sophia and her friend, Scarlett:

I made cupcakes for dessert and added an extra element of surprise.  One of the cupcakes had a plastic baby inside (a tradition that is associated with Mardi Gras and symbolizes good luck).

So, we lit candles and sang happy birthday to Sophia and then the girls carefully cut into their cupcakes to see who the lucky winner with the King Baby was ...

And it turns out that it was Sophia!  It was completely random and she happened to be the one to grab the one cupcake off the plate that had the baby inside.  She received a special gift (a box of sour candies) and promptly shared them with everyone.