Monday, February 17, 2014

Kari's Nutcracker Ballet Birthday Party

 At last, I'm finally getting around to posting about Kari's birthday party...that happened a month ago!  As stated before, we had gone and seen the Nutcracker ballet around Christmastime and after that Kari asked for a Nutcracker ballet birthday party.  My mother was over-the-moon excited to help me plan for this!  And thank goodness, too!  She has a wonderful artistic ability and didn't mind spending long hours on some really pretty decorations!

Grandma Karen is responsible for the beautiful display on our piano--the ballerina ornaments, garland, and "Happy birthday" toe shoes sign were all her!  Oh, and the lovely irises and tulips?  Yup, Grandma pick picked them up at our local flower patch!

 Here is our beautiful table!

 We had cupcakes, brownies, strawberries, and raspberry cookies.  Everything was so delicious and pretty!
The gift bags (found at TJ Maxx!)

 When Kari's friends arrived, we had them bead their own necklaces.  Very intricate work for these 3-4 yr olds.


After the necklaces, we went into the kitchen to decorate our own bears--each bear got a leotard, tu-tu, and jewelry.


Kari and some of her girlfriends!
Then, we brought out the ballet barre that Daddy made out of pvc pipes!  Emily was their dance instructor and showed everyone how to do various ballet moves!
After some dancing, it was time to play pin the tu-tu on the ballerina!
Even Christian got in on the action!
 I think they did a pretty good job!

At long last it was time for Kari to open up her gifts!  She was very excited and got some very fun presents full of fanciness.

Then it was time to eat!  Most of the girls really liked all of the goodies.  In true Kari-fashion, she may have had some juice and a bite or two of a brownie or cupcake.  (Sigh.)  A lady never over-indulges on the sweets, right?


After we ate it was time for one more game--Find the Nutcracker!  We taped up die-cuts of different colored nutcrackers around the house and then gave the kids a color guide.  When they found the nutcracker of the right color, they checked it off on their guide!  The kids really had a lot of fun with this game.
What our nutcrackers looked like
Alexa, modeling what the color guide looked like
Once we were done with that we put on some music and just let the girls dance!
It was a really fun little party and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.  It wouldn't have come together without all of my mom's help and work.

And that is how we finished off Kari's birthday week!


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