It all started with "I want to go to Paris for my birthday", to which we would typically say "uh-huh" and listen for the next off the wall idea :) But this particular idea lasted for weeks and even included details about travel arrangements for out of town family like "Aunt Angela, are you going to ride on my airplane or your own when we go to Paris?"
So it became clear that we should do a "Paris" theme for her 4th but we needed an activity to go with it. I was reading her a Fancy Nancy book one night and it dawned on me how much she likes Paris too. The more I thought about this overly dramatic, red-head who always tries to use big words and loves everything fancy (including Paris b/c everything sounds fancier in French!) the more I was reminded of a certain almost 4 year old near and dear to my own heart :)
We used a print-it-yourself Passport Invitation that I ordered on etsy from a company called Flipawoo. She was great to work with and very patient with my "perfectionism" tendencies :)
We started the party by letting the girls "get fancy" in jewelry, boas and glasses.
Once most of the fancy party guests had arrived I tried reading them "Fancy Nancy's Ooh La La Beauty Day". We made it a little over half-way before the "I can't see, she's in my way"s started :) but this helped us to stall a little more as a few more guests arrived.
Everyone was then free to race up to the playroom where I had set up the "Ooh La La Beauty Spa", which included a station for coiffures (fancy for hairdo), lip gloss & tattoos, mani/pedis and coloring while waiting for your turn. I had toyed with the idea of a more elaborate craft but was so happy I decided to just do coloring (I printed the Eiffel Tower coloring pages for free - just did a google search) It was something kids their age could do by themselves and it looked like several of the pages were colored so I was very pleased!
Here is a pic of the Beauty Spa staff. As you can see there is a uniform required to work at the Ooh La La Beauty Spa :)
Once everyone had a turn at each of the stations, we came downstairs to let them enjoy a Fancy Lunch (fancy for 4 yr olds that is). We had PB&J butterfly sandwiches, "goldfish" like bunny crackers in cupcake wrappers, fruit & cheese and pink lemonade in the Eiffel Tower cups (I found those at Birthday Express & the Butterfly Wings at the dollar store).
Then it was time for singing and cake! We got the cake from a local bakery owned by the family of one of our friends (Puffy Muffin). I bought the feathers, butterfly picks and tiara from Hobby Lobby and they added them to the cake.
Here is a collage of all of the fancy guests! We tried multiple times to get a group picture but it just wasn't happening. I used this picture as the front of a Postcard Thank-You Note that I also ordered from Flipawoo.
There are more pictures from the party in the "Fancy Nancy Party" album on the right. I have also caught up on albums since December, including the "out-takes" from the pics for her invite which always seems to crack us up!
