Come little children. The time’s come to play. Here in my garden of shadows.

A couple years ago Janice Woodruff took us to the Witchfest at Gardiner Village and it was so fun. The girls had a great time, and I knew that we would be back again. We missed last year, but Kim and I decided to take the girls again this year. The weather was perfect, the farmer's market open, and the witches abound. The girls dressed up in their witch costumes from last year and Kim and I rocked the hats we had bought last year as well. 

First thing was to get the girls some face paint. The first year we went Q didn't want to get her face painted, which was so weird, but this year she was excited about it. It looked awesome. 

Then we took our witch scavenger hunt papers and headed out to find them. The girls love to see who can find them first, and sometimes it gets funny/frustrating when they argue over who saw them first. This year there were a couple hard ones to find, and the stubbornness in me didn't want to leave until we found them all, but alas we had to just give up. 

This crazy disco witch was kind of entertaining for the girls

All was not lost though as Q and I got some delicious homemade lemonade from the farmer's market. Q got regular, while I tried the strawberry basil....it was delicious! 

It really is something simple and fun to do with the girls, and we had a great time. 

Everyone hail to the pumpkin song...

It's Q's third year in preschool and the third year of going to the pumpkin patch on a field trip. Q loves the hee haw pumpkin patch, and I am so lucky that I get to go with her on all her field trips. It was perfect weather that day, sunny with a cool breeze, and it made the day super enjoyable. Q has a great preschool teacher, and some good kids in her class. This one boy Davide, wouldn't let Q out of his sight all morning, and became the third in our group for most of the day.

The farm we go to has a couple cool slides, animals to pet (yuck), a tractor ride, cutouts galore, bean bag tosses, corn pile, pumpkin patch, corn maze (i don't do mazes), and tire swings. We stayed longer than most kids at Q's school...she didn't want to leave.

Q loves animals. This made me cringe, and we quickly sanitized our hands upon leaving the animals section. 

I'm glad I am passing along my love of cut outs. They just make me smile. 

In case you were wondering the proper way to do a bean bag toss..Q gives you some instruction. 

Yee haw!

out of all the pumpkins Q chose a small pumpkin and a gourd. Crazy girl. 

a very merry unbirthday to you

I have to admit, when Q asked for an "Alice in Wonderland" birthday this year I was pretty stoked! It was going to be her first birthday where she got to invite "friends" and I was excited to put something cool together. I still vividly remember my "strawberry shortcake" birthday my mom did for me and my friends when I was 6, and I wanted Q to have some of those same fun memories. I do love party planning, and especially love working with a direct theme, and Alice in Wonderland gave me some awesome ideas to work with.

(sidenote:I am so grateful that I am a "planner" and did so much ahead of time, since the day before her party is when we found out my father had died, and kim and I spent the entire day prior driving to and from rifle, co and figuring what we needed to do for that.)

but more about the party...

First came the invites: Thanks to inspiration from Pinterest, and some work on my part, Jared was able to make these awesome invites to send out. Don't you just love them! Q saved one for herself. When I asked Q who she wanted to invite, she pretty much just listed her cousins and I was super happy about that. 

Next came the party hats: What is an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party with Mad Hatter hats? I'll admit, I just loved making these and was so very proud of the result. 

Next was the table decor: I hit up the D.I.'s here and collected some cheap tea cups, plates, and pots to not only make table settings but also try out some topsy turvy table decorations. They turned out to be quite a process but the outcome was well worth it. I also collected frames, and printed out pictures to fit the theme, and got pictures of all the girls faces that were to attend to put them on "flowers" like in the movie with the singing garden. I also bought a bunch of red roses from the dollar store and made some topiaries for the table top. I even used a couple of Q's sticks that she had collected for the stems and she was pretty happy about that. 

Alice's face painting station

my "painting the roses red" topiaries

playing card rice krispie treats

The girls loved sitting at the tea party table, and enjoyed eating "eat me"cookies, playing card rice krispie treats, crackers, cheese, and fruit while coloring the alice in wonderland pictures I had printed out and used as "placemats". It was a good beginning to the party. As the girls were busy eating, coloring, and listening to the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack... they were greeted by a special guest. 

Okay so ignore my breathing and giggles, but the adults were just as excited as the kids when she came in. I just love when the girls get excited and was so happy it all came together. 

While Alice was here she talked with the girls, did face (or arm) painting, played croquet, read them a story, sang with them, and took some pictures. It was awesome!! 

Yes, I may have found oversized playing cards to use at the "wickets", and I may have colored balls to look like little hedgehogs, and I may have found these flamingos at the dollar store during the summer to use as the mallets. I told you I love to work with themes. :)

After Alice left the girls played some more, and each took a turn at the "pin the smile on the Cheshire Cat". 

Kim had found an overhead projector at DI for 8$ awhile back and of course snatched it right up. I was excited to borrow it to paint this Cheshire cat and the Tweedle dum/ Tweedle Dee cutout (cause you know I love cutouts). The kids had a ball with that cut out...and I guess the adults did too. 

At the end, Q opened up all her gifts and was so excited about everything she got! Thank you everyone who came and hopefully your girls had as much fun as we did. 

The preparations for the party was a lot of work, but it was all good little craft projects for me to do at night while watching shows, and I was proud of how it all turned out...but more importantly Q loved everything about her party and I consider that a success! Although, as Tamu pointed out, I may have set the bar a little too high for birthdays to follow...better start saving now for her "super sweet sixteen" party.