Garden Party - The Big Reveal

I've kept you in suspense long enough, doling out details here and there.  Your patience, sweet readers, is about to pay off, today I'll share the all the details for Grace's garden party.

To be honest, though, our garden party theme was stretched to suit whatever I came up with that had anything flower or garden related.

I like to set the tone for my parties as soon as you walk up to our house.  This year, our front porch steps read:  6 and sweet as can bee. 

6, well, because this sweet little girl of mine in what seems like a blink of an eye has turned 6.

And, this little lady, is truly sweet as can bee.  *This is where you have to agree to go along with the liberties I took in stretching our garden theme to now include bees.

Decorations included pom pom bees {inspired by bloesem kids}.  I mean, these bees were so cute, I could have done an entire bee themed party.

Since we all known bees need to pollinate and to bring us back to the garden party theme, decorations also included flowers, both real...

and in tissue paper form.

The Goodwill desk we bought, last year, for Grace's bunny themed birthday party, was used again to hold snacks for the party.  And, our salvaged {aka found on the side of the road} window, was used as a backdrop.

Flowers and greenery nestled among the goldfish.

Popcorn in individual cups, set upon a rustic wood block, next to a beautiful 'Do you suppose she's a wildflower' print.

I was also able to reuse the moss covered letters from Grace's bunny themed party.  With the addition of some flowers and bees, it transitioned well from bunny party to garden party.

The backyard was set to accommodate 14 little girls.

The chairs were decorated with more tissue paper flowers {and if you are starting to wonder how many tissue paper flowers I made...I made too many!}.  

The tables were covered in vintage fabrics found at a local flea market and fresh flowers.

 There were also stations set up outside for games and imaginative play.

Pin the flower in Grace's hair proved to be a party favorite...

Along with the flower themed punch box.

Homemade vintage aprons were tucked inside each flower.

So, each guest went home with a garden party favor bag filled with an apron, a packet of seeds, a flower pot and a flower ring pop.

In addition to games, the girls were also encouraged to use their imaginations and run a flower shoppe or a farmer's market.

There was also a garden station...

including a no dirt garden. 

Our party guests were encouraged to wear tissue paper flower hats.

Once corralled, we plied the 14 girls with dirt.  Choruses of 'ews' and 'yucks' were heard until their first bites and then, it was blissfully quiet. 

Worried about sending these little girls on a sugar high, instead of cake, we served a watermelon cake.  

Watermelon, cut into a cake shape and iced. 

In the end, 14 little girls came to a garden party.

And, 1 little girl turned 6 in the sweetest way possible.

To see more garden party details {budget, pictures, tips and tricks} click here.

Teaching Shapes

Grace, as most of you know, started kindergarten this year.  In the beginning of the year, a sheet was sent home with things your child is expected to know before the end of the year. 

One of those things was shapes.  How hard can shapes be, right?  Grace knew things like square, triangle, circle and diamond but those weren't the only shapes she was expected to learn. 

Diamond was now referred to as rhombus.  Oval was now referred to as ellipse.  And, fun shapes like trapezoids and hexagons were added into the mix.

Thanks to pinterest, I came across a fantastic blog AMSTI Kindergarten Style, that shared this teaching shape method.  Though they didn't have a tutorial, it's easy enough to figure out. 

Have your little one paint Popsicle sticks.  Each shape will be painted a unique color.  Then, have your littel one write out the name of the shape and the total number of sides on each stick.

Depending on ability level of your child, you might want to cut the shape out of paper to add them in piecing the sides together to complete the shape.

Pull them out, let your little one have some fun building their shapes. 

Once they've mastered building the shapes you've made, have them try and create new shapes.