Normally, I am on top of it all. But, it has been a busy (but good!) year, and so… I was up until 2 am the night before Autumn’s party getting things finished for it. Autumn started ballet and tap this year, and she LOVES it, so I knew a ballerina party would be PERFECT. We had Jilly’s do our cupcake tower at our wedding, and so Autumn’s birthday was another excuse to use them. This is how the cupcake tower looked when Brian picked it up… I love how they used my color theme in the icing- with the pink and lavender icing.
I also worked really hard on a Punch Box game the night before her party. You fill bowls up with prizes and little note, then wrap them in tissue paper. I did a number four shape with the bowls on a big white board. I used 3M tape to stick the bowls on so that they would not fall off. I took this picture the night before the party to show some of the prizes in the bowls before I wrapped them, just dollar store finds.
I also spent all night on this wreath… I have never done a tulle wreath before, but I had to send Brian out to do a Wal-Mart run for more white tulle (I ran out) at midnight. Thank goodness Wal-Mart carrys EVERYTHING. 
Allllll the hard work was worth it… for this beautiful soon to be 4 year old. She loved it all.
When I go back and look at her birthday pictures from last year, I am just amazed at how much this little girl has grown physically… and, not just physically, but mentally, too! 
I love this girl, so, so much.
This is a photo of all of us, unfortunately it is blurry… Nathan had to pick up bags of canned goods for Scouts that morning, so he is still in his uniform.
The spread… I was planning on hanging the ballet wreath above the food table, but we ran out of time on figuring a way to hang it up without it falling down (and without adding a nail to the wall!)… then, I thought balloons would be nice, but Autumn told me she thought the balloons would look better on the chairs. Oh, well, whatever, it was good food! 🙂
The birthday girl eating. I am so hooked on paper straws right now, they are just so cute for kids parties.
Autumn handed out the favors to everyone, and here is a cute photo of her with Aunt Tracy and Uncle Jeff.
When it was gift time, Brian and Uncle Jeff carried up her BIG gift… a dollhouse from downstairs. We had to keep ALL of her gifts downstairs until it was time to open them, because last year she opened a bunch of her gifts while I was prepping food before the party! Its just TOO tempting for the poor thing.
Autumn and her GIGANTIC dollhouse. Brian put the entire thing together, and when I asked him how it went, he said… it has wall anchors. LOL! Yes, it came with wall anchors because it is TALLER then Autumn! She actually needs a stool to reach the top floor of the dollhouse!
Autumn was really into opening gifts this birthday. I did not need to help her AT ALL. Look at that BIG smile on her face.
We let Nathan pick out a gift for Autumn this year. Rainbow My Little Ponies. He picked it out ALL by himself, and was so excited to give it to Autumn. She said each color of each pony, and told him it was PERFECT. She ran over and gave him a kiss. It was SO precious! MAYBE, just maybe they do really like each other a little.
Autumn got a REALLY nice gift from Grandma and Pa, her very first BIKE. She can ride it indoors (we have hardwood floors in the main rooms) and we even took it outside yesterday after church and she rode it really well… maybe a little too fast for my liking, but still… she loves this bike! Its a smaller bike, so its perfect for her to start out on.
Uncle Jeff and Aunt Tracy were wonderful at setting up ALL the gifts. They got everything out of the boxes and set up… I loved that!
Auttie was SO tired after opening all of her gifts, she just collapsed to the floor. So cute!
Finally, it was CAKE time. I could not get enough photos of Autumn’s ballerina cupcake tower. I wanted them to put a large 4 on the top of a jumbo cupcake, and then decorate standard sized cupcakes as ballerinas, with the skirt being the icing of the cupcake. We selected several cupcake flavors for the tower, including: Chocolate cake – ganache filled, Vanilla cake – whip cream filled, Vanilla cake – lemon curd filled, Carrot cake – whip cream filled, Pink velvet – caramel filled and Chocolate cheesecake – caramel filled. YUMMMMM!!!
Autumn loved her birthday cake, and I was sure to wear her hair ‘up’ for her birthday party… because, candles make me nervous with her curly and bouncy hair. 🙂 She did really good with blowing ALL four candles out. We had a little mishap with the fondant four falling apart, but we replaced it quickly with a number four candle- just perfect.
After cake, I let the kids play the Punch Box game. I had to really watch them around the game, because they kept wanting to break open the bowls. How the game works is I let Autumn start first, since she was the birthday girl… I let her punch open a bowl of her choosing. Then, Nathan went. All the bowls had prizes except for two of them… then, they’d lose a turn. A few of the bowls would tell them they had to trade that prize with a prize of another player… that caused a little stress! Ha, ha! It was really a cute game, I could see it working for Christmas… you could do a Christmas tree with different colored bowls.
One of the prizes Nathan got was a tube of gel, and you could use a straw to blow it into a balloon. That was fun!
And, of course… I did a little of this after the party! Thanks, Mom… for documenting it!
