A Supercalifragilisticespialidocious Seventh Birthday Celebration

Sunshine's actual birthday was almost two weeks ago, but we only just had her birthday party last night. It was hard to find a time that worked well for us and for the friends she wanted to invite! But we finally got her party scheduled and it was wonderful. I think everyone had a great time. Sunshine decided she wanted to base her seventh birthday celebration around her most favourite movie of all time- Mary Poppins. This turned out to be a rather difficult theme for me to work with, but eventually things fell into place and I think it turned out practically perfect!

The Invitations

The Menu

Figuring out food was the HARDEST part of this party for me! And try searching Pinterest for ideas! Sugar, sugar, and more sugar. Am I the only person who likes to serve real food at birthday parties!?  After struggling with the menu for several weeks, I was chatting with a friend who asked about the party plans... when I mentioned the difficulty of figuring out a meal for the girls she said "Make British food". DUH! I make British food all the time, why not serve that for a Mary Poppins birthday party. Sunshine and I sat down one day after school and listed off some of our favourite British meals. She quickly decided on Shepherd's Pie and a Victoria Sandwich Cake for dessert, though we strayed from the traditional jam and whipped cream filling and instead used strawberry mousse. It was divine. I also served tea when the girls arrived at 4. They each had a few Digestive biscuits (one chocolate and one plain biscuit each) with lemonade or apple juice to drink. We served tea on china teacups and saucers, which the girls got a real kick out of using. For all the hassle of trying to figure out a menu, it turned out great in the end.

The Decorations

I kept the decorations simple... one garland made of umbrella die cuts with a Mary Poppins silhouette in the center. Then, I printed up a "Let's Go Fly A Kite" printable from Tatertots and Jello and paired it with a pinwheel I was given when Man Cub was born. Scattered a few more umbrella die cuts on the table, and that's about as fancy as we got! I do like to think that my collection of mismatched china added to the decor as well. I love my Goodwill china set. Ü

The Cake

As I already mentioned, the cake was a Victoria Sandwich cake with strawberry mousse filling. It was super tasty and pretty in a "I didn't have to pipe frosting" kind of way Ü

The Birthday Girl Attire

Sunshine really wanted to dress up like Mary Poppins in the Jolly Holiday scene of the movie... but since that wasn't happening she opted to wear the dress she got for her birthday from my friend Amanda. Amanda has a real gift for picking out dresses. It has become her tradition to get my girls each a new dress for their birthdays and she always picks the most perfect dresses. They both look forward to their yearly "Amanda dress" and as always, Sunshine's dress this year is absolutely stunning. A great choice for her birthday party.

The Guests

Almost all of Sunshine's closest friends were able to attend her birthday party this year. Only one couldn't make it and she was missed! It was a fun mix of church, school and "little house" friends, from before we moved 3.5 years ago. Many of the girls came dressed up which I thought was so cute, and all of them were super excited to be celebrating Sunshine.

The Activities

We started out by serving tea on the patio when the girls arrived, then they headed inside to watch Mary Poppins. While watching Mary Poppins, Sunshine dragged out crayons and paper so everyone could draw pictures, most of which ended up being pictures of kite flying. We opened presents (and 90% of the gifts she received were "make your own" kits... in the coming weeks, I'll be helping to make a lamp, a doll, decorate a jewelery box, put together room decor and make headbands and a scrapbook. Her friends know her well!) After presents we ate dinner, played a very lively game of Red Rover (which I joined in on and boy oh boy was it fun!!!) then had dessert. After dessert, the party came to an end! I was worried that three hours was going to be too long, but it ended up being just right. We filled the full three hours.

The Favours

The favours are my absolute favourite part of the whole party. We toyed with several ideas, including sidewalk chalk (in honour of Burt) or dollar store kites, but I settled on a "Feed the Birds" theme for the favours. I got little kraft envelopes and printed a picture of a pigeon with the caption "Feed the Birds" on each bag. Then I filled them with bird seed and closed the envelope with bakers twine. Each girl went home with their own bag of bird seed as well as two "tuppence", also known as chocolate coins. I know my girls are excited to go outside in the coming days and feed the birds... I hope all of Sunshine's friends are excited too.

The Letter

The highlight of the party for Sunshine occurred during the gift opening. I should back up for just a moment... Sunshine's one wish for the party was that Mary Poppins herself would make an appearance. She even wrote Mary Poppins a letter, pleading with her to stop by, and Sunshine addressed it to "The Clouds In England". Well, unfortunately, Mary Poppins was unable to attend the party, but she did send Sunshine a very lovely letter explaining why she couldn't be there. This was for sure a highlight of the entire day for Sunshine. She has talked about the letter non-stop and she has asked numerous times to hold it and read it. And, she is insisting that it go in her special things box so she can keep it forever.

For as hard as this party was to plan, I think it turned out wonderful! I loved watching Sunshine and her friends run around, having a great time and they were all so good at including Beebs and Man Cub in their play. It was a truly delightful way to spend a Friday evening... a practically perfect party in every way!