Leila's Art Party

Last Saturday my sweet Leila turned SEVEN. Where did the time go? Truly I remember her being born like it was yesterday, and it's hard to believe that seven whole years have passed.

My girl (just like her mama) is quite a planner, and knew that she wanted an art party for her 7th birthday, before even her 6th birthday. Shockingly enough she hasn't planned on an 8th birthday theme, though she's tossing around the idea of a pajama party ;)

When she mentioned "Art" would be the theme I started searching Pinterest for ideas, and made an "art party" board. I pinned lots of fun ideas, but (as it tends to do) time slipped away from me, and this ended up being one of the more low-key parties, which is just fine by me. Minimal decorations, super simple food, but lots of fun! We made her keep the party small, and limited the amount of friends she could invite (last year's party had a TON of kids!), which made it nice and easy!

My good friend, Jen is a fabulous graphic artist, and is always willing to work with me, to get invitations exactly how I want them to look. For this party I knew I wanted water color rainbow background + simple white text. She nailed it:

When I asked Leila what she wanted to do at her party, she said "PAINT!"

We were lucky enough to have a 75 degree Saturday (in January!) so the party was held outside. I told Tony that I wanted some huge easels to fit at least four girls each, and he made me two out of scrap wood from some previous projects. They were absolutely perfect!

Each "station" had an apron with each girls name (I just used regular acrylic paint), a goodie bag that I haphazardly painted a neon rainbow on, which held their canvas, a papier-mâché of their first name, a paint palette and some watercolors.  I knew the watercolors would be for at-home use, since we had tons of acrylic colors for them to use on their masterpieces.

We didn't do much decorating at all, besides on our tree. Leila and I painted the handles of a bunch of paintbrushes and then strung them with twine on branches. We also added streamers, and some honeycomb balls. It's the happiest our tree has looked all Winter.

The food was minimal and simple. Leila was specific with what she wanted - "macaroni and cheese from a red box (Stouffers), strawberries and goldfish." Done and done. I also picked up some Costco pizzas, and that was it. So easy.

We had a DIY Italian soda bar, which I thought was really fun and simple (even the adults loved it!) Cans of club soda + different flavorings and that was pretty much it. My friend Michelle, of Swoon Custom Chalk made an adorable chalkboard how-to sign to add a fun, personal touch.

Desserts were tons of fun! My dad made monster cookies with pastel rainbow m&m's, my mom made paint brush rice krispie treats, a friend made mini cupcakes and frosted them different colors, which I then put on an art easel, yummy, mini donuts from Costco, super cute art easel sugar cookies made by the catering department at my old high school:

...and I baked Leila a rainbow-layered cake. I frosted the outside all white, so the inside would be a surprise!

The party was super relaxed, and once the girls were done painting and sugaring up they ran around and played outside. It was a great day celebrating my sweet girl!

Sources:

• Photographer
• Invitations, water bottle wrappers
• Giant easels - my husband is amazing, and he made them
• Mini Cupcakes
• Paint Palette cookies - done by my old high school, which now has a catering department. They currently don't have a website, but I will link you guys to it as soon as they do!
• Custom chalkboard
• aprons 
• canvases 
• palettes
• paint brushes
• goodie bags

PIN ME!