party ideas | The CSI Project

Hi, fellow CSI Readers! I'm thrilled to have the chance to introduce myself to you today. I'm Ruth, the writer here at The CSI Project. It's my "job" to check out all your blogs and the blogs of our guest judges and sponsors so that I can write the features and winners' posts each week. What I do is waaaay too much fun to feel like work! I can't believe how lucky I am to know The CSI Girls--Beckie and Jen--and to meet all of you readers, sponsors, and judges virtually. I followed The CSI Project and participated in the challenges long before I joined on as the writer. In fact, I have my own little blog, A Trip to Holland. There, you'll find me writing about how I find joy in the journey of motherhood, homemaking, and DIYing. Jen and Beckie asked me to share one of my favorite fall projects with you this week. That favorite project would have to be the birthday party I threw for my daughter last year, when she turned seven. My daughter, Superkid, has a birthday that is very close to Halloween...but she doesn't like anything spooky! We celebrated seven years of growing big by hosting a teeny, tiny, fall party. Guests were invited to the party with these miniature cards, measuring just 2 square inches! The cards were placed inside progressively larger envelopes, so the guests could enjoy opening smaller and smaller envelopes to find the tiny invitation within. I folded the party information accordion style inside, so it would fit. The invitation read: Once there was an itty-bitty baby, Who grew into a pretty little lady. We know she can’t stay small forever, She just keeps growing! However… ….We thought it might be fun to celebrate Superkid sprouting from small to great At a little bitty, teensy weensy, skinny-mini, smally-wally, teeny tiny party! (Time, address, RSVP, etc.) We’ll enjoy tiny snacks, tiny treats, and have a tiny bit of fun as we celebrate all things tiny and Superkid’s 7th Birthday. I decorated for the party with miniature pumpkins and pennant banners. I even decorated the Birthday Girl with a tiny pennant tee shirt that I made using fabrics and ribbon that coordinated with the party decorations. As the guests arrived, we took them outside for a teeny-tiny s'more bar. We let them "roast" mini marshmallows on toothpicks over tealight candles. Instead of graham crackers, the girls sandwiched their marshmallows between Teddy Grahams with a chocolate morsel. The tiny s'mores were a huge hit! (I wish I had more pictures of the s'more bar, but if you've ever tried to supervise a group of seven year olds with open flames, you'll understand why this portion of the party wasn't well documented.) After the s'more roast, the girls played some card games with miniature cards. Then, they went back out to the picnic table to decorate tiny jack-o-lanterns. Instead of carving, I had the girls glue doll hair and hats, googly eyes, and other cute stuff on their jack-be-little pumpkins to personalize them. See the very small party hats the girls are wearing? I made those myself, using guidance from this template. Once the pumpkins were decorated, we sent the girls into our sandbox to dig for tiny treasures. Before long, those little girls had worked up big appetites, so we brought them inside for a buffet of tiny foods. Vienna sausages in little buns were the mini hotdogs, bagel bites were the mini pizzas, and the veggie tray was made up of cherry tomatoes and julienned carrots and celery stickes. The tiny birthday cake was a regular sized cupcake, and the cupcakes were baked in tart pans so they would be smaller than the "cake". Even the water bottles were petite! The highlight of the party? These very tiny ice cream cones. The guests could not get enough of these! They had so much fun telling their mothers at the end of the party that they "ate six ice cream cones!" Guests were sent home with tiny favor bags filled with special treats, including these hair barrettes and pins created to match the party colors. It was fun to see how many elements of the party I could personalize, just by creating my own versions of things I saw online or in stores. I used basic scrapbooking paper in bright autumn colors from Hobby Lobby for the party hats, water bottles, and pennant banners. I was able to find the mini ice cream cones at Target, and I sliced the veggies myself. The hardest thing for me to find was the mini hot dog buns, so I made those by slicing frozen dough rolls in half before baking them. You can check out some of the parties that inspired this one here, here, here, and here. I can hardly wait to see the fall projects that you enter into the challenge, tonight. And I'm really excited to feature some of you readers....make sure you go HERE to find out more about how you can win a spotlight!