Ellas birthday in the Alley of Dreams

I realize it is July, but I am posting a party from April, but better late then never, right?! It was just such a good party and I don't want anyone to miss out on how I pulled it off.

This was for Ella's 5th birthday. Normally, I tie her birthday in with Easter, but I felt like 5 was such a special number, I decided to throw her a big bash. So she asked for a "fox or deer theme" and I turned it into "Woodland Creatures". I spent lots of time planning, delegating, and scanning Pinterest but there were 3 big things that made this happen and thats what I want to share with you:

1. Community. It takes a village to pull off such a big party (If you try to pull this off alone, you are either superhuman or crazy). Amber made the cute little puff balls, Steve made the table, mowed the lawn and cleaned up the alley (man, that guy is the best). Dylan and Andy put up tarps (that Ken let us borrow) "in case" it rained (it didn't but probably would have if we didn't have the tarps up). Donna helped with up-keep in the alley and let me borrow every missing ingredient I needed for everything I cooked (which was a lot). Uncle Jamie brought (and made) everything you need to make the biggest most AMAZING bubbles ever. Literally, best ever.

2. You need to cut corners where you can, imperfection is key. I used a box cake mix (Trader Joes vanilla cake mix is the bomb). I super glued everything from the mushroom chair tops, the flags, table cards; you name it... I superglued it. That trusty ol' sewing machine stayed tucked away the whole time.

I also was using items we had around the house to decorate, like their treehouse, little animal toys, logs from the recently cut down tree, you name it, I found it somewhere on our property (a few exceptions from Micheal's ).

3.  You need food and friends! That is key to making the party. Ella got to invite 5 (maybe 6) of her closest friends and then all their siblings. When you then add in all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and neighbors, it becomes quite the party. Telling your friends to dress up makes it that much more festive!

I kept the food simple. I planned the party after lunch time but before dinner and then just had out snack food. We did ants on a log, pretzels, berries, ladybugs (tomatoes on cream cheese on crackers), veggies, kettle corn, and little tea sandwiches. I probably could have had more food but I think everyone survived and had a good time anyway. 

I forgot one more reason why this all worked, because ELLA was born!