Ellie Jane, Age 8 (Colorful Karaoke Party Reveal)

It's that time of year.....my sweet Ellie rings in her birthday at the very start of the Christmas season, which always leaves me feeling nostalgic, a bit chaotic, and like time is moving entirely too fast. This girl never ceases to amaze me. So aware, so alive, and so determined. There is so much I could say, but mostly I am so very proud to call her mine and have the privilege of learning from her and watching her grow.

For the invitation I had the wild idea of hand stitching a design on to each one. I soon realized that was insane, but not before falling in love with it and so I soldiered on and completed 15 of these bad boys. It was totally worth it. I have been so in love with the Japanese stitching technique called sashiko (more on that later), and this design was very much inspired by that!

I offered to do her party at the gymnastics place like the rest of her class, but she told me she still wanted a party at home (high-five!). Not just any party though, a karaoke party with lots of balloons. If you know my family and how much most of us love to hear ourselves sing, you would know how great of an idea this was! I twisted by Dad's arm and convinced him to DJ (he also ended up throwing down a little Hall & Oates and Steely Dan on the mic).

The decor was simple-green garlands with pops of color in the form of balloons and honeycomb balls, and lots of confetti on the tables and lots of balloons on the floor. We made some fun tassel necklaces and covered our bodies in flash tattoos (not pictured!) while the girls took turns singing tunes at the TOP of their lungs. This party was not for the faint of heart (or for those who are easily-over stimulated)!

Dad came through once again with an awesome cake that was WAY better than what I would have made. The treat bags were made by adding a strip of copper tape to small brown bags and I used this tutorial to make a million tassels while Netflix binging the night before the party (I modified it to make the tiny tassels even tinier and added a ring to the top of each one to make it easy to string on a necklace).

I also painted hot pink stripes onto butcher paper for easy table runners for the table and dessert table. My Mom came through with an amazing array of kid food, straight from my childhood-biscuit pizzas, mini hot dogs, sandwiches in fun shapes and cups of veggies and fruits. Seriously, that woman is the best.

Happy Birthday Ellie-we could not love you more!