Portrait Party

Summer birthdays are the pits for kids. No celebration at school. Attendance is slim at your party due to summer travel. For mom though, it is not so bad. No icing and transporting 50 cupcakes.

Smaller party, smaller headache. My daughter turned 10 over the weekend and had a small party to celebrate. Only a couple of girls could make it, on the plus side she got to have them over on her actual birthday this year since it fell on a Saturday. It was actually nice having the small crowd, and tit ended up being two of her oldest friends.  Quality over quantity. She knew she wanted an art party, we had done one a few years back. I ran across this post on Skip To My Lou and decided portraits would be perfect.  Each girl picked a name to see which other girl they would be painting a portrait of.  They had a ton of fun with the painting! It was fun watching and listening how they worked through the process of deciding how to draw the person, incorporate the suggestions from the girl they were painting, and adding their own finishing touches.  They all started with the eyes.  They really put a lot of thought into their work. Each girl wrote a note on the back of their creation and and they each got to take the take home the picture painted of them.  It kept them busy for awhile too, bonus. The portraits turned out great.

She will be having another celebration, a sleep-over. She is getting to the age where even a one year age difference is an issue. In addition to the kids in her class she is friends with, she has a lot of friends in the neighborhood that are a grade younger than her. She was insistent on not mixing the crowds. I know the age gap will seem even larger when she heads off to middle school. Luckily we have another school year until that happens.

In related news, the three year-old decided he wants to spend his 4th birthday in Vegas.