KK is EIGHT, so we had an Art Party to celebrate!

So I can't really believe I am blogging this... and not just because its been since July that I blogged at all... my 1st baby is turning EIGHT. 

 

E.I.G.H.T

 

And if any recall the panic I felt when we hit five, well let's just say it doesn't compare to the panic of eight.  At this rate, I won't handle the teen years very well.  How have we had this sweet girl in our lives for EIGHT whole years?  I still remember with vivid clarity how it was when we brought her home from the hospital and how teeny tiny she was in her car seat and in our arms.  Has it really been EIGHT years?  I better stop and get to the party details, I could go on about this EIGHT thing for hours.

 

So here is our big girl, ready for the party to begin!

 

 

In order to avoid December planning chaos, KK and I decided this year to have our birthday party with our friends a few weeks early.  So for those of you wondering if you have her birthday wrong, nope!  It is still in a few weeks away.  But today we decided to gather our friends and celebrate EIGHT. 

 

And since KK loves anything artsy and crafty, we decided to throw an Art Party!  We start our party at a nearby Art Studio, where all the kids will paint a picture together that KK has chosen.  After those are complete and dry, we are bringing the party to our house to have treats, cupcakes and open gifts together.  We haven't ever been to nor tried such an event, so we were excited to see how it would play out.

 

Now before we went to the Art Studio to paint, I needed to get a few pictures of the setup at home...naturally!

 

Here is our cupcake with an EIGHT candle (yes I will keep saying EIGHT in all caps, bare with this momma who is still processing this number).  The cupcake isn't much, but as you will see, it was just our "singing" cupcake.  We had bigger plans for the "eating" cupcakes :-)

I give thanks to Pinterest, who took my theme and gave me ideas that make me look Martha Stewart when I am the farthest thing from that.  Paint brushes made from rice krispy treats and colored candy chips.  And they were so yummy!  In keeping with the theme we also had Paint Chips made of marshmallows. 

 

But my favorite part of this party set up would have to be the brilliant find of art palettes!  Why decorate a cake for an art party when you can let the artists themselves decorate their own cupcakes?  I found these super cheap palettes online and filled them with sprinkles, gummi worms and bears, Swedish fish, M&Ms, skittles.. if it was rainbow colors and fit on a cupcake we were sold!

More on these and how they turned out later :-)

KK approved of all the food and decorations - we were ready for this party to begin!

The party at the studio started with everyone arriving and coloring a personalized poster for the birthday girl.  It had KK's name on it, along with her party theme of rainbows, hearts, peace signs and a soccer ball.  The teacher hand drew this just for KK, it was impressive.

 

After the poster was complete, it was time to get into the paints and complete the masterpieces.  I was super impressed with how very serious our artists were and how quiet they got.  Luckily KK had her ipod and we got to rock out to some Taylor Swift 1989 and other top hits :-)

Our teacher was wonderful, step by step instructions but the kid did everything themselves.

The boys of the party - AJ had a few friends join him too!  AJ absolutely loved this party, he is also all about art and he amazed us with how focused and independent he was in his work.

KK was loving the rainbow peace sign heart picture she selected for everyone :-)

 

 

Some of our friends were too focused to take pictures hehe :-)

 

Here is KK's final masterpiece - it turned out great!

I had to get a picture of all the artists with their final pieces before we moved the party to the house.  Love this picture:

 

They all did great!  AJ didn't make that picture so we got some of him with KK and his boys.

 After a small snack and break, we loaded these kiddos into various cars and headed to our casa to eat, sing and be merry!

 

First thing to do: sing Happy Birthday to our sweet girl so she can make a wish and officially feel EIGHT!

 

After our singing cupcake was used for the birthday wish, the art palettes were passed around and the real fun artwork began... along with a serious case of sugar high!

 

The birthday girl really loved getting to decorate her own birthday cupcake!  More is always better when it comes to candy on a cake :-)

Poor Kins, woke up from a nap and was just eating a little snack when the house got hit with ten wild and crazy kids ready to party.  This is the face I got when I asked her what she thought about all this...haha!  Love her!

 

I got some silly faces lol  - they were having fun!

 

I'd say just by these pictures alone that the cupcakes were a complete and total success.  That and the floor that was covered with as many toppings as those cupcakes.  Oh well, art is worth the mess!

 

After cupcakes, we gathered the party goers and opened gifts together.  Then the crazy began.  Apparently after sitting quietly to paint and then loading the kids full of cupcakes and candy leads to crazy wild children running around your home.  How did we not see that coming?  It was worth it though, there was also a lot of laughing and fun going on! 

 

There was even a dance line happening in between barbies, hide and seek, balloon fights, football and who knows what else was happening.  The boys were busy watching the TCU football game in one room, us moms were hanging in the kitchen eating way too much of the junk food we had everywhere.  I do know at one point a kid hid under the covers of my bed during hide and seek and another underneath a pile of clothes in the closet.  These kids take their hide and seek very seriously!  We thought at one point we lost someone who was hiding so well  haha!

 

Here is the dancing line: 

 

So after a few hours our friends slowly left to go home and we had a few minutes to capture some sweet shots with our EIGHT year old birthday girl before calling it a day.

 

My fav shot of the night :-)

Kins was pretty proud of sissy's artwork, she basically wouldn't let go of it.

Yup still holding on to it for dear life!

 

So I got a little silly in this last shot and KK declared this picture awesome so I leave you with it!  We had a wonderful and fun day with our friends.  This was a great way to celebrate our creative and brilliant EIGHT year old girl, doing what she loves to do. 

 

Sweet dreams Y'all!