A Beautiful Flower Party for Ella

My baby just turned 3!  Yay!  Boo!  I'm so happy to see her getting bigger and smarter everyday, but at the same time, I'm sad that I no longer have a baby.  Three is a fun age though, and she's already potty trained, so I think I'll keep her!

Anyway, my lovely daughter requested that she have A Beautiful Flower Party. What can I say?  She loves flowers and finds them all to be beautiful.  So, what could I do to make her happy--make a garden of beautiful felt fabric flowers!

If you read my blog, then you already know that I recently posted a quick tutorial on how to make felt fabric flowers.  They are super fun and easy to make.  Just be careful with the hot glue gun!

We decided to travel "back home" where my husband and I grew up to visit family and to have Ella's 3rd birthday party.  Lots of people came to celebrate the big day for Ella and to enjoy the delicious BBQ and fixins we supplied for lunch.  After the meal, my sister-in-law helped me put together the "cake" so the birthday girl could get to the important stuff--opening presents!

Ella is not a big cake eater, so she really didn't care what kind she had (I thought).  Since she wanted a flower party, I decided to make some yummy Mississippi Mud Cake (my mom's famous recipe) which sort of looks like dirt, hence the name Mud Cake.  At the last minute, out of no where, Ella asks for pink cake!  Well, dirt is not pink, but I decided to throw some in the mix just the same.  I attempted to make some individual bunt size strawberry cakes, but they stuck to the pan and just crumbled.

My original idea had been to use the small green flower pots to put all the cake in, but after washing them several times, they still had a plastic odor. So, we put some crumbled strawberry cake in the bottom of the birthday cups instead, then added a dollop of cool whip, threw in a few gummy worms, and placed a piece of Mississippi Mud Cake on top!  And to finish it off, I decorated each pot with one of the beautiful flowers I made of felt.  I simply left a small opening in the felt circle that covers the back and then slid a new pencil (eraser side) into that little pocket it created.  The pencils worked out great since some of the flowers were a little heavy.  The flowers make great little take home gifts for the guests, too.

And there you have it!  A crazy dirt cake flower garden!

Ella loved everyone singing Happy Birthday to her and then getting to blow out the candle.  She even asked my sister-in-law to "make fire" at least three times, and once she insisted we sing to her again! So sweet!

Does anyone recognize the dress?  Well, Ella finally was allowed to wear it!  I made it a couple of months ago from a pattern I won.  You can read all about it here.  The fit was perfect, but since it was still a little chilly, she wore under the dress this white shirt with flouncy sleeve cuffs.  Oh, and I almost forgot, I turned one of the felt flowers into a barrette for Ella's hair.  It perfectly matches the flowers on her dress!  Two other small flowers were turned into pins.  I wore one.

This is the best picture of me taken at the party--seriously.  See my adorable son in the background shoveling gummy worms into his mouth?  He found the ones we didn't use in the cake and ate them all before I knew it!  I love him!

He was a very good big brother and helped Ella open her presents.  I think he was as excited about her surprises as she was!

I didn't do much with decorating for this party except hang up a few flower themed items that I bought at Dollar Tree.  I guess party decorating is just not my forte.  But the most important thing is that Ella loved it, and I know she did!  Happy birthday to my big girl!

Oh, and this is what happens when you play and party hard all day and night!