Smith Family Weblog

I love the details that go in to an event. I don’t get to focus on these much at work anymore, and so they’ve become even more important to me when I have the luxury of planning something at home. Given the myriad of ideas available online (even for the seemingly small niche of woodland fairy birthday parties), I had a huge supply of inspiration for this gathering.

We started with very simple invitations with three-dimensional butterfly stickers.

I wanted to create  the “woodland” feel with the party decorations, allowing the little girls to serve as the fairies. I started with the centerpiece for the main table, which I created by covering Styrofoam blocks in sheets of moss. I intended to use native grass cuttings from our yard, but opted for greener silk flowers instead. The letters spelling Ava’s name are borrowed from her bedroom wall.

I think this photo that Doug shot illustrates the main table the best:

The flag garland over the table was almost an afterthought—I had so much fabric left over from the mushrooms, I decided to make use of it. I stacked it up, made three quick cuts with my rotary cutter, then secured the flags to ribbon with a bit of hot glue. In all, they probably only took 20 minutes.

Ava and I painted small birdhouses (for the fairies, of course) and created fabric colored mushrooms to add to the centerpiece.

Despite starting our planning efforts nearly a month ago, there were several tasks I didn’t complete. My mom disappeared for a bit on Saturday morning, and I was pleasantly surprised to see her return with flats of pansies for the pots in the entryway.

My favorite part of the planning and preparations was making the tutus for the little fairy guests. In all, Gramma Great and I made ten tutus by looping tulle around a ribbon.

Here’s the smallest tutu, made especially for Sylvia, our littlest fairy.

We hung the tutus and wings near the front door and secured them with flowery hair clips.

I had blue dragonfly wings for the boys, but they were remarkably unpopular…

We served chicken salad sandwiches, crudites, chocolate-covered strawberries (called fairy berries, of course), fresh fruit and cheese, and plenty of sweets. Laura, a calligraphy artist, created the gorgeous labels.

One of the best ideas I found online was for a make-your-own-trail mix bar, complete with chocolate nests for bowls. To make the nests, I mixed crushed shredded wheat with melted chocolate, and molded it into the inside of a dish. After a few minutes in the freezer, the “nest” popped right out. Dave made the wooden chargers we sat underneath.

I made flower-shaped cupcakes for Ava and her guests, and in keeping with tradition, I ruined the first batch and had to make a second to serve.

My mom made an angel food cake, which I nearly—and accidentally!–destroyed. Mom was thankfully able to save it, and we placed it on a cake stand that Dave built for the party.

Karyl and Ava decorated the number six sugar cookies, and then sprinkled them with a bit of “fairy dust” to make them glimmer.

We put the pinata in place, and waited for the fairies to arrive.

Up next, the party participants!