the (belated) butterfly birthday party

So, here at last are the highlights from Madeline's third birthday party.  I love planning parties for our littles!  When we talked about her party, Madeline decided that her party needed to be pink and that there should be butterflies.  It worked out to be the perfect theme.

One of the reason the littles' birthday parties are fun (for me, at least!) is that they're just little parties for little people.  Though I love to work with a theme, our birthday parties are pretty low-key affairs.  We invite a couple friends and cousins, and we aim to keep the number of invitees right around the birthday child's age. (Your siblings are a freebee.  So are cousins, so far.  Madeline got to invite about three friends beyond that.  Small is key!)  Our parties last about two hours; there are some games, some food, and some cake.  And so far, that's been more than enough.

We decorated with a bunch of balloons (they're a requirement for a party, according to the girls), a birthday banner, and a host of butterflies cut out of scrapbook paper.

As our guests arrived, we worked on a butterfly craft ("stained glass butterflies" -- tissue paper on contact paper) before we moved on to play pin the butterfly on the flower.

The beanbag toss was probably the most popular game, but that's probably because we didn't much worry about rules.  Everyone can land the beanbag in the basket when it doesn't matter where you stand!

Daddy read The Very Hungry Caterpillar...

And then we snacked on some of Madeline's favorite foods -- blueberries and raspberries, golden raisins, and butterfly-shaped cheese and crackers.  (I wasn't kidding about low-key, people!)

After snacks, Madeline's friends helped her open her gifts.

We finished off the party with Madeline's special request: "pink cupcakes" with butterflies and "pink ice cream."  (Incidentally, we found a great strawberry cupcake recipe here, and the instructions for the chocolate candy butterflies here.  I was really glad for the small party when making those butterflies!)

We somehow missed getting a photo of Madeline with her cupcake and candle, but I'll show you again that she was pretty happy anyway we did manage a video!

Shortly after stuffing our small guests full of pink cupcakes and strawberry ice cream, we sent them on their way.  While we were seeing our friends to the door, though, John David saw fit to help himself to not one, but two more cupcakes.  (We'd given him one already when everyone else ate!)  Leaving the platter on the table and leaving John David momentarily unsupervised were clearly oversights on my part.  I don't know how I didn't see this classic John David moment coming a mile away.  His face was too funny for me to even be upset.  (And he did, after all, use a spoon.  If it weren't so gluttonous, it would practically be civilized.  Okay, maybe not.)

Madeline loved her birthday party, and has already begun planning next year's fete.  (She currently wants a fairy party.  Kathleen, who has much less time to wait, has wavered between a superhero party and a winter-princess party.  Birthday party themes are a favorite topic of conversation of late.)  We loved the chance to shower our sweet Maddie Beth with love and attention.  We hope she felt as special as we think she is.... though we're not quite sure that's possible!