Love & Sugar Kisses: January 2013

My youngest daughter is a funny girl...her silliness is on 24/7 and she never ceases to make us laugh with her antics. So when she told me that she wanted a "meatball" party for her 4th birthday I wasn't too shocked. She loves the song On Top of Spaghetti and wanted that as her party because she not only loves the song, but really loves meatballs...especially the ones her daddy makes. But...she is also a very girly girl and wanted her party to be and I quote "really fancy mommy, pink and VERY fancy!". She continued to stress that it must be FANCY! So I set out to create a Fancy Meatball party.

To keep the party fancy, I used pink and gold as our colors and lots of roses. To greet our guests at the door, I made a wreath that I painted gold and covered with roses. I hung a glittery letter G in the center. The great thing is that without the G this will do double duty as a Valentines Day decor!

I took my cue from the song itself in which the meatball rolls into the garden, and put together a garden party that featured meatballs. Kori Clark of Paper & Pigtails created the beautiful invitation which perfectly captured the spirit of our fancy meatball party!

I couldn't help but laugh when I tried to explain what I wanted "yes a fancy flowery invite...with a meatball on it". Definitely a crazy request, but Kori totally got exactly what I was going for! She also created the fabulous signs that hung above the tables.

I made a 2 tier cake frosted with buttercream rosettes. Jenny of Craft that Party created the most adorable peg doll cake topper for my daughter..modeled after her with curly hair and all!

She even painted a number 4 on the back with a rose pattern to match the party! How sweet is that!!

I also made macarons (because they are so fancy according to my daughter) and of course there had to be meatballs so I made meatball cake pops!

Tara of Bambella Cookie Boutique makes the most gorgeous cookies that are as delicious as they are beautiful. And she didn't bat an eye when I said I needed some vintage style rose cookies oh and a few spaghetti and meatball ones too!

For the decorations I used a lot of rose vines, rose fabric and gold serving pieces (many of which I spray painted).

The kids tables were decorated with fabric, the centerpieces were more of the flowers tied with a gold bow (which I also used on the chairs), a doily for a placemat and a fan made from scrapbook paper.

I asked our guests to wear their favorite dresses and made mini top hats for each of them to wear. I decorated them with ribbon, feathers and paper rosettes from Craft that Party! They loved their hats!

Of course there was no way a fancy meatball party could NOT have meatballs, so for the snack table we served meatballs along with fruit and finger sandwiches (so fancy)! Another fabulous sign by Paper & Pigtails was used on the snack table.

While I had this part mentally planned for months, I didn't have an opportunity to shop, craft or bake until a few days before the party. There were many things that didn't happen (no meatball tree like I'd hope) and it was a scramble the morning of the party. But one of my absolute FAVORITE last minute decisions was my husband's idea. He decided a fancy party needed a waiter and so he dressed up and served the girls the entire party. He was a HIT and they loved their personal waiter! The picture below shows him presenting the juice to the guest of honor for her approval.

We stuck with very simple, classic games (changed to fit our theme) for the activities: pin the meatball on the fork, hot "meatball" and musical chairs. These easy simple games were a definite hit with the girls and I loved to see how much fun they truly had playing these timeless games.

In addition to their hats, our guests each received a goody bag and a lolliop favor. The lollipops were inside of these amazing favor boxes created by Piggy Bank Parties which were made to look like a rose!

The goody bags were paper bags topped with a gold doily. Each bag contained a little notebook and pen (in rose pattern), a rose patterned pencil and a light-up rose stamp.