this is six, pink flamingos and all

After two rain postponements and much anticipation, we celebrated our oldest daughter’s sixth birthday with a flamingo themed party. She had chosen the theme months ago. Flamingo is her favorite animal. Why? “Because they are pink!—my favorite color, Mama!” And with that, the planning began.

I love planning parties and this birthday was no different. I ended up recycling a few items and ideas from my older daughter’s mushroom themed party last year, to make the planning and prepping a little easier. The following is a collection of photographs from the special day:

The birthday girl wore a flamingo dress. Flamingo decorated clothing and items seem to be everywhere at the moment. I guess my daughter has a sense for what is in vogue. I added a touch of craftiness to her ensemble by making her pink flamingo wings.  I’m not a great seamstress and with my time limited, I created no-sew felt wings using a rotary cutter to cut the feathers and a hot glue gun to apply them to the under wings, also made of felt.

I asked my daughter to draw a flamingo so I could add it to the invitation. I was amazed at how well it turned out—pretty terrific, no? She enjoyed drawing the flamingo so much that she asked to help create the rest. Together we made a two sided invitation with her writing out the details. From there, I scanned in the drawing and all the info using Photoshop. I did some rearranging with the text and drawing to make it fit and added some palm embellishments.

Like her fifth birthday, I wanted to have a gathering place for the kids to sing happy birthday and eat cake. I reused a large pallet that was left after a large furniture delivery to make a rustic, ground level table.  My handy husband cut a 4×4 to make the legs of the table. We added bamboo sticks at the table ends so that I could string flamingo lights and tropical lanterns above the table for an added touch of adornment.

Etsy is great for unique party goods which is where I purchased the cups, plates, napkins and straws. I also purchased tropical leaf placemats and used them as a table runner. I recycled the bird nests from last year’s party for added table decor—replacing the mushrooms and woodland birds for palm trees and flamingos.

Flamingo abound throughout the yard.

Once again, we kept it simple with food at our outdoor buffet area offering crudité, meats, cheeses and fruit platters. I provided snack bags for the kids to munch on and my husband set up a hot coals campfire for the guests to roast hot dogs.

Every year we have some variation of a scavenger hunt for the party game. It is an easy way to add some fun and it can be done at each child’s own pace. No standing around waiting for turns, and if you have a mixed-age group party, both little and big kids love it. This year I purchased some very inexpensive tinsel flamingos at a party store and we hid them throughout our yard. The kids traveled around the house with pencil and paper to tally a set number of flamingos.

Once all were found, the kids could collect their prize: bird eyes.  These “bird eyes” could be any type of creature really. They fit on a child’s finger and you can mimic a talking bird or creature. The were also purchased at a party store.

I always love creating themed specific party favors for the kids to take home. Each child went home with a bag decorated with a pipe cleaner and yarn flamingo with the contents including, a wooden bird whistle (again, a party store purchase), a Dover Publication bird themed sticker or activity book, and a hand-drawn flamingo and palm tree button for the kids to wear on their clothes or on a backpack.

To create the homemade button, I purchased a pack of design-your-own buttons kit, scanned and then printed my daughter’s drawing using a label template, and used a circle punch to cut the drawing out to fit into each button.

In addition to the scavenger hunt, a bubble machine, trampoline and hot dog roasting area kept the party going.

I always put my husband in charge of the cake and he never disappoints. He made two sheet cakes using cake mix and his grandmother’s homemade butter icing recipe. He also added food coloring to each batch of icing. He and my oldest daughter cut out a paper template for each cake (a palm tree and a flamingo), placed it on top of the icing, and dusted icing sugar on top. After, my husband carefully lifted the template off, a shadow image of the palm tree and flamingo were left behind.

Cake time!

Practicing their cake eating skills before the party began.

Finally, a perfect spring day to celebrate with my girls.

This is six.