Catie's Easter Birthday Party

Even though the bouncer I had reserved in February did not show up, I think my daughter's 4th birthday was a success.

Invitation wording:

Miss Catherine Grace is turning FOUR
For a theme she requested Hello Kitty-Princess-Lego-Star Wars.
However, as her birthday falls on Easter Day,
Instead we will have a bouncer and hunt for Easter eggs*!
The festivities will start at 11 am on April 8
And we hope that you can join us to celebrate

Decorations: Much to my husband's chagrin, there were Giant Easter Eggs everywhere: 

Cake table: featured coffee-filter flower bouquet, a Hello Kitty flower bouquet, and blow up light sabers.


Food: deviled eggs, crackers and cheese, fruit, a bread bunny dip bowl amid a field of veggies, a bunny shaped watermelon fruit bowl and finger sandwiches.
 Activities: make a princess crown or monster mask craft, an Easter egg hunt, and playing.

Birthday cupcakes: baked either in egg-shaped foils or ice cream cones and topped with chocolate birds nests, Hello Kitty candies, or candy Lego bricks (made with the Wilton's candy melts and a Lego brick ice cube tray).

Overall, I think the party was a success!

Catie seemed very happy with her party
.

Coffee filter flower uses

In an earlier post, I detailed how I made coffee filter flowers. Here are some of the ways I have used these flowers:


1. Catie's Easter basket.....Dollar Tree bucket, coffee filter flowers, chicks from Michaels, a little ribbon and green tissue paper... and Beacon's 3-in1 glue.

2. Wreath: I absolutely love the way my wreath turned out and plan to use it each spring. My husband thought that I would be throwing out all of the decorations after Catie's party, but that will not be the case!

3. A table center piece: this arrangement practically made itself

4. Teacher Day gift bouquets:

Gerber daisy, peony, and lilac paper flowers

Hyacinths, Gerber daisies, and peonies

I recently saw a post on Aunt Peaches blog on how to make hyacinths from tissue paper and another post where she made dyed coffee filters to make roses. I decided to make some for my daughter's Easter birthday party.

1. I diluted 15-20 drops of food dye McCormick's Neon food color and egg dye in approximately 0.25 - 0.5 cup water in a small bowl. The edges of groups of filters were placed in dye until they were completely wet. I was a little impatient for the filters to dry, so I put them on top of a piece of newspaper on a cookie sheet in the oven at 225 degrees, checking every 20 minutes.

Dying coffee filters-- note that the coffee filters acted like chromatography paper and separated out the pink and the blue of the purple neon dye

Do you see the flowers I saw in these filters?

2. After the filters were dried, fold 3-4 at a time into eighths and cut the tops into a heart shape or smaller petals. Cut a 3" wide (by approximately 18" long) strip of yellow tissue paper, fold it in half and notch the folded side. Cut this strip into 4 pieces (approximately equal in length).

Different flower petal shapes

3. Two techniques for making flower centers:

• Aunt Peaches technique for making hyacinths to make the centers of the flowers:

Flower centers created with hyacinth technique

• Twisted coffee filter: twist yellow filter into a loose ball and stem -- like a large lollipop.

4. Flower assembly: snip off the tip of the folded coffee filters, open them up, and attach them to the flower center with floral tape, floral wire or a pipe cleaner.

5. Fluff out the petals, experiment, and enjoy! I started out to make hyacinths and roses, but ended up with Gerber Daisies and Peonies!