The Pow-Wow Party

As you might remember from last year, I love birthday parties. Or, I should say, I love throwing birthday parties. Actually, I love throwing parties in general. It is entirely possible that my obsession with putting on events has to do with the fact that I eloped and was thus deprived of the chance to obsess about the most special day of my life. Or not.

Either way, I try to have a big birthday party every year for my kids. It started with Kai's first birthday and we've continued the tradition every year. We've had a Japanese themed party, a Luau, a Pop Art party, a Faerie Forest party, and this year, a Pow-Wow party.

Since the girls' birthdays are only a month apart we do joint parties. It is easier on us and allows us to have one big huge bash where we go all out. I love the way it works out.

The pow-wow theme was really fun to plan for. We had teepee cupcakes for the kids, a Native American scene on the cake for the grown-ups, a rock painting station, a pony bead jewelry station, and (the best part!) PONIES!

With over 20 kids and 30 grown-ups it was important to make sure we had plenty to do, and I think we had just the right mix of activities to keep all the kiddos busy while waiting for pony rides.

Here are a few pics from the party. The girls' outfits were made from thrift store finds and turned out pretty fun. I'll be posting more about how I like to make costumes on the cheap later in the week so stay tuned for more on that...

Every year we have a picture framed for each girl and have guests sign it. They have one from every birthday and I hope someday they'll enjoy having these as reminders of their birthday celebrations.

I kind of messed up and forgot to order a cake for the grown-ups this year. So, in a last minute run to Kroger I found a birthday cake decorated with removable balloons and dismantled it, added some sprinkles for grass & dirt, and used the Native American figures the girls had to play with as decoration. I think it worked out pretty fun!

The teepee cupcakes. I wish I could take credit for these amazing things! They were AWESOME. They were cookie and cream flavor with an actual Oreo baked into the bottom. The cone was filled with Oreo creme and they were absolutely heavenly!

Last (but not least!) were the ponies. Can you tell the girls were loving them?

**Notice how even though I spent 3 days making 20 Native American vests out of paper bags and headdresses out of feathers & posterboard my children aren't wearing either. That's gratitude for you!**