Pink Birthday Party

Can I start by saying that I am not a fan of the color pink?

But somehow, my precious girl loves it!  All she wanted for her 3rd birthday was pink balloons and pink "ice cleam".  I figured I'd be able to give her at least that, right?! So over the months leading up to her birthday, I kept my eye out for deals and clearance items that could be fun... Hello Target $1 bins!  I bought a roll of pink paper to put on the tables and 2 shades of pink balloons for my idea of a balloon chandelier... and a clearance package of pink cookies.  And this was my party plan.  I really didn't have any energy to pull much else together.

But one day, in my refusal to do real work, I made a Pinterest board.

I took a look at our calendar and realized that La Chula's birhday would fall on our regularly scheduled church College Group night. That made it really easy... we'd invite the students to our house for a game night, feed them pink food, and tell La Chula that it was her party. Done!

It turned out to be the sweetest party and she felt so loved by all the friends that came and wore pink in her honor. 

Here is the pink spread... something I embraced was that it didn't have to be perfect for anyone to enjoy the sugary desserts or for my birthday girl to feel celebrated! These were simple foods that the kids could help with too!

 {Sources: Plates, napkins & pink paper - Target}

 You could call this an Ombre Cake Pinterest fail... or you could call it a successful Dr. Seuss cake. 

Not exactly like it looked here!

Red Jell-O... it's kind of pink, right?  Kids who don't get Jell-O often are really excited by it... so are college students.

Not shots...Just jello ;)

My sister sent me the pin for the dipped wafer cookies.  We ended up using all 3 flavors because I wasn't about to buy 4 packages just to get enough pink ones... leaving the others around my kitchen for weeks.  Side note: these cookies should be prepared on the day of the event.  Even though I made these the night before and kept them in a sealed container, they were stale by the next night. Boo.

Circus Animals and Dipped Wafers

I call the punch in the punchbowl "Church Punch".  I remember it being served at weddings and showers.  The recipe is as follows: Half a container of sherbert (I used berry - of course) and 1.5 bottles of ginger ale (I guess that makes it 3 liters?).  Side note: nobody sells sherbert in cardboard boxes anymore...they will look at you crazy if you ask for it.

{Source: straws and mason jar lids from Pick Your Plum}

This picture (outfit 2 of 3 for the photo shoot, by the way. That's how the birthday girl rolled!) just gets me!  I think it's her crossed feet... they remind me that she is still little.  Also, the Sophia the First "statues" (also known as tattoos).

She climbed right up on the stool and blew out those candles like a pro.  She even was offered an encore performance! Also, college students dressed in pink... did I mention how cool they are?!

Once you look inside the cake, you forget how crazy it looked on the outside... kinda :) Also, pink sprinkles in the Target $1 bin at Valentines Day... Score!

 Ok, so sliced, it was way cool! We also served pink ice cream... it was Red Velvet flavored... FTW! Savvy shopper tip: Lots of junk food is on sale around Super Bowl.  We bought 2 cartons after Super Bowl and kept them in our freezer.  It lead to great anticipation of her birthday every time the freezer was opened.

And just because she's my silly girl... and I love her!

 Happy 3rd birthday my precious Chula girl!