Sara Kate's Owl Party

Yesterday we had Sara Kate's 2nd birthday party at Gulley Park in Fayetteville.  I got the idea to have it there back in the fall when I took Sara Kate to the park one Saturday morning to play and a party was being held in the pavilion.  I asked a lady there how to have a party there and she said just go to the City of Fayetteville's website and it lists all the parks and you can reserve the pavilion that way.  Here's the website if any NWA folks are interested.  But she said to reserve early because it books fast.  When I realized Sara Kate's birthday was going to fall on Easter, I figured that wasn't a good weekend to have her party.  The following weekend Chris had an out of town school function so we decided her party date would be April 21 (and we decided that and I reserved the pavilion back in February).  Ever since we decided on an 'outside' party, I've been praying for no rain and a pretty day because I had no back up plan! :-)  A week ago the forecast was sunny and 75 then a stupid cold front had to move in.  We had rain Friday morning and then it got cold!  It was in the 30's when we woke up Saturday morning, but thankfully it turned out to be a gorgeous day, around 60 degrees.  It was a small party, and we invited a couple of Sara Kate's school besties and some of her church friends.  As I mentioned in her family birthday party blog, I did a theme of owls.  Here's the invitation I found and had made on an Etsy site, and I had the file emailed to me and I printed it in town.  Basically I just wanted owls, with lots of pink and turquoise as the colors.

I absolutely loved her dress that my friend Jennifer made, but once I got it and tried it on Sara Kate, I decided that it was too long for her to be trying to climb all over the play equipment at the park.  I contacted a girl I met locally (from I Live By Faith Boutique, who I have mentioned in a blog before) about making Sara Kate an owl t-shirt, using turquoise and pink.  She did with the help of her friend at Make It Initial, and she ended up making some little ruffle shorts to match for free.  The outfit turned out too cute for words!  Unfortunately, we didn't get a good picture of Sara Kate wearing it on her party day, but it looks like this (outfit had just been washed when I took the picture so excuse the wrinkles!).

 

We missed getting pictures of how I decorated so I'll just tell you about them and you can use your imagination. :-) I took the birthday banner I made (which I am still planning to blog about) and planned on hanging it but the wind hampered that little plan.  So we taped it up in the pavilion.  I had pink and turquoise plastic table cloths and then I used pink balloons that we anchored in little silver buckets with clear marbles as the centerpieces.  I found white and turquoise dot plates at Wal-Mart, turquoise and white polka dot napkins at Target, and we had cupcakes on little pink plates.  I got the cupcakes at Sam's and they were white cake with pink frosting (delicious and very cheap!!).  For food we had pizza (can't beat Eureka Pizza's $5 carry out special!!), I made fruit skewers with strawberries, grapes, and oranges, and I had a basket of Goldfish crackers or Cheez Its. I found a big plastic bowl and a plastic platter that were turquoise at Wal-Mart (and only $1) that I used for the fruit and cracker bags. For drinks we had Capri-Suns for kids and water, Diet Coke, or Dr Pepper for parents. I decorated the tables under the pavilion but then we ended up eating on the tables that were in the sun because it was warmer.  Oh well.  We let the kids play for a while, then ate lunch, had cupcakes, and let Sara Kate open her presents.  And then of course, they headed back to play some more!  Here are some pictures from Sara Kate's party.

It was sweet Landry's first trip to the park! She just celebrated her first birthday a week ago and we're so glad she came and hung out!

 Sara Kate and her bestie, Grayson!  These girls are so precious!

 

 

 

For party favors, I had Holly from The Doughmestic Housewife make the most ADORABLE owl cookies!!  I got in contact with her back in mid February after we set the party date, and we've been in contact ever since.  I just told her owls and pink and turquoise.  When I met her Friday to pick them up I was just amazed...she's extremely talented!  Needless to say, she was great to work with and I'm sure I'll utilize her talent again at some point in the future!

 I made the little favor tags on the computer here at home, and I just printed them on cardstock.  I think they turned out really cute.

Overall, I'd say Sara Kate's first 'friends' party was a success.  She had a great time and I'm sure she loved having all her friends around.  The last picture I'll leave you with is one I think is awesome...haha!  If you're my Facebook friend you've seen it but if not, here ya go and here's the story.  As we were cleaning up, the next group that had reserved the pavilion got there to set up.  The guy pulled their big cooler in and said something, and I looked up and just blurted out, 'Oh my gosh, you're Dan Skoff!'  For those of you not from NWA, he's our weather man on our local NBC station (our news station of choice) and I think he's great (he rapped the weather forecast Friday night...it was HILARIOUS!  Check this out!).  I was such a dork, seriously, and I'm sure Chris was so embarrassed, HA!  But he was really cool to talk to and he seems like a really nice guy (and he's really tall!).  He even borrowed our duck tape. :-)  And of course, I made Sara Kate get her picture with him.  It's just a crappy cell phone picture because Chris had already put his camera away.  Just so ya know, he's not holding up a peace sign, he's holding up 2 fingers because Sara Kate turned 2!  That experience made my day! :-)