Celebrating Eight!

As a child grows up and turns one year older every. single. year. all parents say, "I can't believe she's {fill in the blank} years old already! I am no exception to this comment about one's child growing older. I have enjoyed each year that my girls have turned and I look back fondly on each milestone and experiences they have had  as they have grown year by year. I won't say I am sad as they turn one year older, but I do take pause to reflect on the little person they are and the journey they have taken to be where they are at this very point.
Emma-Caroline will turn eight years old tomorrow. It's a big day for her as well it should be. From the time of her first birthday until now I have always enjoyed planning her birthday party and making it a very special celebration for her. She has had a lady bug party, a tea party, a garden party, a Dora Party, a princess party, a ballerina party, a bowling party and this year she had a camping themed party. I am a person who loves printed invitations so I always start any party planning with the perfect invitation.

This year I found the cutest invitations on Pinterest from a wonderful company Anders Ruff. They had created a fabulous invitation for a "Glamp Out!" or glamorous camping party. It fit Emma-Caroline's sleepover party criteria and thus started my party planning wheels a turning. Pinterest has become my new favorite go to source for great party ideas. I even pin some of my own photos (not to be showy) to my boards in a effort to be helpful to someone else like me who is looking for party ideas to replicate. I tell you, Pinterest is perfect for party planners!

We had a wonderful sleepover "Glamp-Out" with 11 total girls. They were such sweet young ladies and our glamours camp out was the perfect theme for a very snowy cold night in March.

The setting was definitely a mix of the glam with a hint of camp.

The girls received a glamorous "trail mix" and s'mores as party favors.

The hang tags are also from Anders Ruff. They have a lot of cute, cute ideas for parties and I highly recommend them for their creativity and ease of working with.

I found these cute flower petal buckets and  felt letter tags for the girls to collect their goodies from the pinata Emma-Caroline wanted to have.

I took the Anders Ruff invitation to our local grocery store bakery for Emma-Caroline's birthday cake. I decided a few years back that the local grocery store cakes are quite delicious and way more cost effective than the really fancy cakes I have had done in previous years. I truly love fancy bakery cakes, but kids take one bite and lick off the icing and then the rest of the cake is ready for the garbage can. There is no sense in waisting gourmet cake and money when a grocery store cake tastes great too.

The lady at Food City went above and beyond with this cake. She even added the wood grain from the invitation. I thought she did an excellent job and I am planning on writing an thank you card to her for her efforts.

My sweet almost 8 year old absolutely loved her cake!

The girls dined in style with glamourous table settings and traditional camp out food of hot dogs, chips, fruit and s'mores.

All of our little guests gathered to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl!

This is my favorite photo of this series as Emma-Caroline's sweet friend Andie held her hair back so that she could blow out her candles safely.

The girls then gathered in the family room to watch Emma-Caroline open all of her gifts.

We then set up the camp style craft table where the girls painted a bird house.

Next was pinata time!

Finally the candy broke free and everyone filled their flower pails.

After lots of food, fun, much laughter and celebration, the girls got dressed in their pajamas and headed down to the playroom for their "camp-out." It was a wonderful birthday party! Emma-Caroline is a very blessed little girl to have so many sweet little friends to help her celebrate turning eight.