a ballerina party!

This was probably my favorite one of Ella's parties to plan. She started saying she wanted a ballerina party about 6 months ago so finally I decided she was serious and started planning. My idea the whole time was, "think pink!"

Devon and I made a bunch of these adorable tissue paper pom-poms and hung them in the entry, the outcome was exactly what I had envisioned!

A ballerina party demands dress up, right?!

So, of course the girls got tutus and tiaras and after a little brain storming I decided that the boys get bowties and crowns. It worked out perfectly! I had intentions of making everything but with mr. clifford's recent arrival, and the holidays, I ended up ordering everything except the bowties (they were pretty easy to make).

I spotted this frame while out shopping one day and just knew I had to use it somehow at her party. I just put in one of the photos we took for her invite and used it as a centerpiece. I loved it!

For her cake I kept it simple, sorta. The most time consuming part was cutting out all the glittery ballerina silhouettes for the cupcakes.

Food was simple too. I figured the most appropriate ballerina menu would be light & fresh! Sandwiches, salads, fruits, veggies, ect.

Instead of the usual pinata, I figured an all-pink candy bar would just go so much better with the theme. I got lucky with Valentine's day being right around the corner, pink candy was pretty easy to find. I also grabbed some cute ballerina accent stickers at Michael's to tie it all together.

Initially, I planned to make ribbon wands for the kiddos, as part of their dress-up gear, but then I had the idea to let them make them themselves (worked out great!)

This was a great way to kick off the party activities.

Coming up with some ballerina games that were age appropriate really required some creativity! I was actually super pleased with my cool invention, think freeze dance+a cake walk+musical chairs.

The kids had fun dancing around to the ballet music, especially with their cool ribbon wands. Ella had me in tears (from laughter) with her moves, the girl can dance!

We also had a "tippy-toe" race, which kinda just turned into a regular old running race (it was a good idea in theory, I guess). Then we just danced! My dad had the fun idea to play the "gummy bear" song and pass out gummy bears to the kids who were dancing, that was cute. We also did the classics like hockey-poky, cha-cha slide & macerna.

The photo below is ella dancing, in the jumper, to alvin & the cimpmunks version of "I whip my hair" (I whip my tail back and forth...)

I Still can't believe my little lady is three! It seems like three is a whole new level, like the end of baby/toddlerhood. She is just so independent now, it goes by too fast, and she is already talking about her next party!!! She knows I can't wait to plan it ;)

We had a great time & we hope everyone who was able to attend did too.

We missed those of you who couldn't be there <3

happy birthday again, my beautiful ella leigh!

p.s. we finally got a family photo of the four of us! only took us nearly TWO months ;)