art party.

Sophie has always been a little artist. She loves to draw and paint and create. My sister-in-law went to a painting party here and was showing us her finished painting and talking about how much fun it was. She said they did birthday parties, but that it was pretty expensive. But it got me thinking... 

 Since we only do friend parties every other year, I had been planning this one for a year. (Which for me means writing ideas in my little green notebook.) The actual work almost always happens a few days beforehand. That's just how I work. (and how the month of October works.) 

Meet Beth. She's the Art teacher at our school. And she's awesome. The kids love her. Teachers love her. She's just easy to love. She's fun and creative and encouraging and tells each child that they are an artist. I knew she would be the perfect person for our party.

The aprons were from Dollar Tree. $1 each. My neighbor, Amy D., ordered us a roll of iron on vinyl for her Silhouette machine. Sophie chose a font that she liked and Amy helped us make our little purple ladybug aprons super cute! (Thanks again, Amy! They turned out so great!!)

I borrowed music stands from school. They were the perfect little easels! Michaels had a pack of 7 16x20 canvases for $20. Add on one of their 40% off coupons and my 15% teacher discount and you've got a really good deal! (Plus, I bought all the paint when it was 50% off)

I loved how all the girls were given the same directions, but each had their own unique painting. So many happy colors!

The "internal perfectionist" may have come out in this little miss at one point. She wasn't loving how her flower looked. She was so focused on the lines and brush strokes and all the little things she thought looked wrong with her painting. So I had her take a step back and come look at it from where I was standing. Then she could see the beautiful flower that I saw...

 We left the flowers to dry and headed inside to continue being artists. But this time... on cookies! I first saw the idea here, but changed it to cookies, since I wanted each girl to be able to decorate her own. I also didn't want to waste time using fondant that they wouldn't want to eat. So my friend Holly sent me the link to her favorite fondant recipe. Nothing but marshmallows and powdered sugar. They loved it. (and I was amazed at how easy it was! And fun!)

We used a fancy bowl of frosting for Sophie's candles. =)

And it happened to be Mrs. Burn's birthday that day, too! So, of course, we had to sing to her, too!

The mommies had fun decorating leftover cookies that evening... 

Love this girl...

Thank you again, Beth, for all the smiles you helped put on these sweet faces! We all had a great time!

p.s. For those of you that are local... Beth is available for future art parties! Find her on Facebook or leave a comment on her blog! Your little artist would love it, I know! =)