This year for my girls' birthday, I did a really small, low-key brunch/lunch. Their birthdays being exactly a month apart to the day, I decided to do this right in between both birthdays. Also, so that each would get their own special time, I did this twice in one day; once at 10:00am, then I had a thirty minute reset time to get ready for the next at noon. I only invited three of their friends to keep it small and more intimate for them. I don't usually do large birthday parties, unless it's a milestone birthday. And in the last two or three years, we've opted to take a trip in lieu of any party at all. I kind of decided to do this on a whim, and kept it a secret until the morning of the little get-together.
A few days ago, I posted about my woodland bohemian party inspiration, and this is what it was for. I wanted to keep it low-key and practical, but pretty as well. The only kicker was the fact that in order to keep it a secret, I stayed up really late after my kiddos went to bed in order to get some of the decorating done, and also to make the flower crowns for each girl (which ended up taking a lot longer than I had anticipated). I had envisioned a pretty outdoor scene, nestled under a tree, complete with ferns and flowers and wood and whimsy. So, tying fabric to a tree at 2:30am in the dark while the coyotes were howling in the field behind my house wasn't exactly the highlight of my day. I hurriedly finished outside and scampered inside as quickly as I could. My overactive imagination had yellow eyes glowing in the murky darkness, a rabid coyote waiting to ambush me at any second. I ended up only getting about two hours of sleep (and that's rounding up) before I had to get up to get ready for the day. (I had also scheduled a photographer to come and take our yearly portraits about an hour before the party started, so I had to have my girls dressed and ready and all of the food ready to go extra early.)
I LOVE this picture that my friend, Jan, snapped of my youngest daughter's brunch time. They were holding hands and saying the blessing. So sweet!
I set up all of the food on an outdoor table my hubby built me a few years ago. I flanked it with wood and ferns.
This beautiful cake was called a Chantilly Cake from Publix bakery. It was as delicious as it was pretty!
I served fruit, cheeses, lots of little cookies and sweets, and finger sandwiches.
So here's where my ideal little outdoor brunch that had been swimming in my head drowned and took all of what I had envisioned with it. It got really windy. It started to sprinkle. We were having issues keeping the food covered and the flies away. So, I made the decision to move the party inside. Not what I had in mind, but I was going to make it work. Then, when we got inside, this happened......
.......The pretty Chantilly cake went flying of the cake plate that was in my hands and splattered on the floor. We had already cut pieces of cake for these girls, but it was supposed to be for the next little gathering, too. I didn't cry. I didn't pitch a hissy-fit. I really only felt like smacking myself in the forehead and saying, "Doh!" just like Homer Simpson. Oh, well. We would just have to make due with what we had for the next set of girls.
For my oldest daughter, we just set everything up in the dining room. It wasn't raining, but at this point, I didn't want to fight the flies or wind.
After it was all said and done, the girls all had a great time. My girls were surprised and were so happy to celebrate their birthdays, even though it was just a small little gathering.
Have you ever had a party that didn't turn out exactly as you had planned, but ended up working out anyway? I guess my lesson of the day was to not stress over things out of my control, and make the most of every situation. That's sometimes hard for my perfectionistic personality tendencies, but I'm learning.
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