Golden Birthday
This year’s party theme was simple which is maybe why we didn’t really start planning until the end of May (gaspssss!). Ellie turned 14 on the 14th — it’s her GOLDEN Birthday. From the invitations to the decorations, this girl wanted everything to be shiny and golden. She also wanted a 24-hour party to remember including a trip to the movies, a dip in the pool and a sleepover. The limitation was how many friends I could haul in my car, which is five. Because Jackson has to wait 4 more years for his golden birthday, we spun off the golden theme and went slightly Wanka sending out Golden Tickets and taking a trip to the Candy Store.
It’s All in the Golden Details
A party always starts with the invite for us. We were gifted these blank cards that had gold foil on them and made them work for Ellie’s invites by adding to the front and printing on the inside. The final touch was to go over the script font with a gold gel pen.
After making a plan to have about 5 sweet things – cupcakes, choco tacos, macrons, ice cream bar, churros – Ellie backed it down to the usual cupcakes. We of course decked them out in gold sprinkles and wrappers. We did settle on adding gold dusted chocolate dipped strawberries for the spread before they went to the movies.
For parting gifts, we gathered all the Golden Girlie things including gold nail polish, lip gloss, and hair tinsel, all of which they used promptly before the movies. Ellie also wanted to make sure that everyone had a matching shirts that said Golden Crew on the back.
After three of four friends arrived, they did hair and nails, had a light lunch and then we headed to the Golden Ticket to watch the new release of Inside Out 2. After that we went home for a quick change and headed to the pool for a couple of hours. The final invitee arrived for dinner and the sleepover party where we turned in at 10 not knowing how late the girls were going to stay up. In the morning they were all served waffles and fruit and looked like they didn’t get much sleep.
The Golden Ticket Party
For Jackson’s party the next day we came up with a Wanka Bar and Golden ticket by printing on golden paper. Since Ellie was going big with five friends the day before, we compromised with Jackson to go small and limited his party to two friends. Grandparents were also invited to the lunch on Saturday.
His cakes were just a bit different with colored sprinkles and then we printed a TICKET to put up on the backdrop. After lunch, cakes and presents, our family departed and we took the three boys to play miniature golf at Candyland. When they were done, we let them pick out one candy item and a soda for the ride home before gladly dropping them off at home all sugared up.
When it’s your golden birthday you go big. Ellie had so much fun celebrating with her friends for an epic 24 hour birthday party. Jackson was also happy with how his party went. They are two wildly different kids and we are so blessed that they are ours. It will be fun to see how future birthdays are divided and planned out now that we’ve let them have separate parties.
More Golden Photos
