Dance and Twirl with the Birthday Girl

I did something that goes completely against my nature when it comes to birthday parties...

I held Emily's 4th birthday party somewhere other than my house!  


This is something I've never done before and quite frankly, swore I'd try never to do.  Planning home birthday parties, the old fashioned way, is something I really love.  I love playing traditional party games and decorating for the party with a fun theme.  I like the specialness of a home birthday party.  I really do.


But this year, I just couldn't do it!  The combination of Christmas and me being 7 months pregnant left me searching for a way to give Emily a special party without making myself nuts!  

Because she wanted to have a ballet birthday, it worked out perfectly that her dance studio holds birthday parties.  And so it was... we held a "Dance and Twirl with the Birthday Girl" party at Emily's little dance studio.  


Because I couldn't completely let go, I opted to decorate my own dessert table instead of letting the dance studio handle everything.  Yes, I'm Type A!

It wasn't much, but I was able to manage to print some sweet personalized printables, make a cute little tutu to go around the bottom of the cupcake stands, and create a tutu inspired bouquet of flowers for the dessert table.  I found cute personalized place mats for each girl that adorned the party table; along with some additional tutu poms.

And although I initially felt an enormous amount of "mom guilt" over not "doing enough" for my 4 year old birthday ballerina, the party was a big hit and all the girls had a fabulous time!

They did a craft...

Played lots of traditional party games...

Ate cupcakes and cake pops...

And for the grand finale, they learned a little dance routine to "Somewhere over the Rainbow"...

 

Here is their grand finale pose.  The whole thing was just downright precious!

At the end of the party, the birthday ballerina gave her friends hugs and handed out the party favors.

Emily enjoyed every last second of the day and couldn't have been a happier FOUR year old!

And I learned something too... letting other people help and holding a birthday party outside of my home doesn't make it any less special.  In fact, I enjoyed the day so much that I might just give up my stronghold on hosting home birthday parties altogether.


Maybe!

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Ballerina!

*****

And just for fun, I had to post a few pics of the little ballerina sister who thought she was one of the big girls too!