Birthdays & Loot Bags!

We celebrated Davin's birthday over 2 days - her party with her friends last Sunday, and then a family celebration on her actual birthday.  For Davin's birthday party we just invited 4 of her friends plus their younger siblings for a total of 7 children plus Davin & Miren and went to 4Cats Arts Studio for a Paint Splatter Party.  It was a lot of fun for all.

I wanted to keep the loot bags simple and include a few things they would actually use.  I decided to make some fabric bags, and used Betz White's great shoe bag tutorial, but then scaled it down, cutting the fabric to 9" X 10" and reducing the top hem to 1".  To reduce the fabric I put unbleached muslin on the reverse side, and some fabric I had on hand for the fronts.

I then filled them with these pinecone skiers which I made into tree ornaments, inspired by these.

I also included a pack of fruit chews, a couple of tattoos, and a glow stick bracelet.

The hit of the party was the rainbow cake Dame made, inspired by this one - admittedly we did use 2 boxes of Duncan Hines white cake, but we used the recipe on the back, substituting milk for the water and adding 3/4 cup of sour cream to make it lighter.

This was the table that greeted her on her birthday:

 

I kept the birthday shirts simple this year, appliquing a small "5" on the top right side of the shirt with some wool felt I had on hand. Other than that we just gave her a purple sleeper with feet which was a big hit - she LOVES sleepers with feet!  She got plenty of other gifts between family and friends, although I was happy that most were thoughtfully chosen puzzles, board games, and clothes which will all get a lot of use.

Davin ended the day by saying dramatically "thanks so much guys for the wonderful day!".