Sweet 16

Next week, Flowering Buttercup turns 16.  This year she asked for a party.  She's had parties before, but she wanted a BIG PARTY this time...the kind with invitations and intentional activities, and 15 girls.  I'm not great at that.  It stresses me out like crazy to be in charge of things, especially parties.   Right after she mentioned the word party I started trying to talk her out of it.  I offered her shopping, money, dinner out, a trip to Hawaii (I only offered that when I was pretty sure she wasn't going to bite at anything.)  But unfortunately for me, when Flowering Buttercup gets an idea in her head, she's pretty determined to make sure it happens.  So, on Friday, I finally gave in and started preparing for this party.  Because, after all, they only turn 16 once, right?

Here's what happens when you have really good intentions, pray really hard, and call all your friends, neighbors and family for help...

After consulting Pinterest, I made a long list of everything I needed.  And then I dragged my friend, Amy, to every store within 15 miles of Allen looking for all things PINK!  She's such a trooper!! 

Spell Girl and June stayed home from the football game with me on Friday night and helped me put up decorations.  It looked like a pink Flowering Buttercup shrine when we were done.  

We dug through all the old picture boxes upstairs and found so many cute ones that we couldn't just limit our decorations to the mantle.  The girls taped all these up in the kitchen, too.  I LOVE this!  And so did FB.  We're definitely continuing this tradition for all future birthdays.  

PINK treats! 

Did you even know that there were so many pink things??? 

Table for manicures

Since we had so many treats, FB wanted a few healthy food options, so I tried to pick things that were easy to make and didn't require an oven.  There's a fruit, yogurt and granola trifle back there.

The CAKE!!  This turned out so much better than I expected.  And it wasn't even super hard either.  Now all the kids want one just like it for their birthdays, too!

Be careful when you blow the candles out, though, because the girls standing on the other side of the table got showered with sprinkles!

Here's what the inside looked like...PINK and white!

FB has some really cute friends.  They're silly and loud and totally dramatic, but they're really good girls. 

This whole party came together without tears, frustration, or yelling.  That alone was a huge miracle.  I am so grateful for all the hands who helped make this happen.  I could NOT have pulled this off without them.  I am especially grateful to the Scout Master and the other kids for setting aside their entire weekend to make this an amazing birthday for Flowering Buttercup.  The memories that we will all have after the last two days of preparing will last so much longer than that shopping trip I had in mind.  I'm glad Flowering Buttercup always stands firm in what she wants. 

And I'm so glad she had a great day!