Vaughn's Polka Dot Party...with a dash of Hello Kitty!

I can't believe my sweet little gal has turned 6!  Vaughn has grown up so much over the past year that I can't believe this beauty that lies before me is the same little girl that walked into kindergarten about a year ago.  She is so smart, sweet, empathetic and of course, beautiful.  I just love her to bits and can't believe how much my life has changed for the better because she is in it.  I tell her all the time that she is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I do mean that.  Being a mom has been such a blessing in my life and has really caused me to look at everything differently!  I wish they'd just stay little forever, time goes by way too fast.

My little birthday girl requested a Hello Kitty party for her 6th birthday.  Being the Tiger Mom that I tend to be from time to time, I tried everything I could think of to talk her out of it because of my lack of love for all things "character".  I went through the same thing with Beau and his love for Mickey Mouse this spring...but my husband reminded me that it is not my birthday.  You would think I learned my lesson with him, but no...I had to try to talk Vaughn out of Hello Kitty!  

I thought I had really made some progress when I showed her the invitations that I purchased on a major deal from Inviting Company's warehouse sale in Little Rock last year.  They are super cute...and I loved the colors, the polka dots - I knew I could come up with something REALLY cute with this invitation as a starting point.

Invitiation...check.  I can work with this!  We were really lucky to find a location for the party after striking out on a couple of other fronts.  In my frantic search for a party spot after realizing our pool was booked on the evening we had planned the party, I stumbled across the Thomas Splash Park.  It is a public facility maintained by the City of Carrollton at the site of an old swimming pool and I thought we had scored - no fee for use, completely age appropriate and it could handle the number of guests we needed to accommodate.  If that didn't make it perfect enough, they also had grills, great seating areas and it wasn't ever super crowded on my scouting adventures.  This was a major bonus considering you can not make reservations or book the facility.

So...we have the site...a color scheme...easily planned menu thanks to BBQ grills...

BUT NO HELLO KITTY.

UGH.

This became a major bone of contention with my sweet daughter.  Afterall, she asked for a HK party so she should get it...right?  RIGHT.  You see, we have always made birthday parties and general birthday celebrations a big deal in our family so she had every reason to expect that I would work with her desired theme as I have always done in the past.  And, as my darling husband reminded me once again, it was not MY birthday...cue retraction of Tiger Mom claws. 


Luckily, my friend, Anne, came to the rescue and provided a solution to incorporating HK into the party theme without causing my gag reflex to go off due to character overload. By the time party day came, I was ready.  I had crafted the printables that Anne created...

Another first for this party, I made the cakes by myself.  I had made cupcakes for Vaughn's parties in the past but had never attempted a cake or fondant for a birthday party.  I think it turned out pretty cute!

All in all, we had a great party with family and friends.  The birthday girl was happy, Mom was happy, everyone had fun - we couldn't have asked for a better day!