Camryn’s Fifth Birthday Party

Posted in: Story of Us

THEME

When we went to Disney World in January, I knew Camryn loved Belle. I just didn’t know how much she loved her until she started planning her Belle birthday party on the way home from Disney World!

A lot of what you see in the pictures was by Camryn’s request. Some of it was my idea just to add to what she had already suggested.

Yellow is currently Camryn’s favorite color (and Collin’s too, which is wild to me that they both have the same favorite color!). Camryn did the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique experience at Disney World and chose the gorgeous Belle dress you see her wearing. She said she needed yellow gloves and gold sparkly heels to add to it. A few months ago, Camryn asked for us to wear yellow for her party. I found a dress I liked and matching polos for Weston and Collin. I wanted the yellow polos to look more intentional for the party, so I decided to hand embroider a rose on the chest of Collin’s shirt. It was my first time trying hand embroidery, but I’m proud of how it turned out!

DECORATIONS

One of Camryn’s decoration requests was large characters – aka cardboard cutouts. I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on these cutouts. Instead, I spent hundreds of hours painting them. 😉 Thankfully, I have had months to work on them since she has been planning since January!

My personal favorite decoration was the large Belle silhouette featuring Camryn! A few months ago, I scored the frame super cheap on Facebook marketplace and knew I wanted a silhouette inside it. I dressed Camryn in her Belle costume, did her hair, and took a silhouette photograph of her. I ordered a large print, attached it to cardboard, and put it in the frame.

I’m not sure where Camryn has seen chair sashes, but she insisted on having yellow chair sashes. She also asked for a floating rose. This was probably one of the easiest items to make. I just had to hot glue a fake rose to fishing line and hot glue the fishing line to the glass.

A few thrifted decorations: silver teapot, cube frame vase, the perfect French saucer that looked like it came straight from Beauty and the Beast, wicker basket, and some of the vintage books.

After doing Camryn’s hair, I realized I would not have the time or patience to do it on the morning of her party. I needed a professional and Kinsley came to my rescue!

My parents and I planned to decorate everything at Harper’s Chapel the night before the party. They, along with Kinsley, Annie, and Alan, helped bring Camryn’s vision to life. It was time-consuming to set everything up, but totally worth it to see Camryn light up when she saw it.

We had to include photos of Camryn from the last year in the shape of a 5. Five years and counting doing photos like that! Plus we had a framed invitation and framed photos of Camryn meeting Belle at Disney World!

Harper’s Chapel had a ton of the items we needed: tables, table cloths, chairs, standing mirror, mini bookcase, easel, tea cups, and saucers! So thankful for them!

FOOD

Keeping with the yellow theme, Camryn asked for a lemon cake. She said the cake had to be yellow with ruffles. I found some inspiration photos on Pinterest and sent it to our favorite cake lady, Mrs. Phyllis. She made the perfect cake and we added a princess crown. Camryn told her friends at school that her cake was going to have a crown and they all thought it was hilarious!

Camryn’s favorite food at every party is the themed sugar cookies. She was in love with all the designs and wanted to eat every single one! We only had a couple of cookies left after the party and Camryn made sure she was the one to eat them.

Earlier this year, Camryn tried macaroons for the first time at a baby shower. She loved them and asked if we could have them at her party. And of course, she wanted them to be yellow. They were perfect for her Belle party and everyone loved them!

As much as I love the sweet things, I knew we needed some other food options. I thought about doing baguettes since they are mentioned in one of the songs, but I couldn’t find any small ones and I definitely couldn’t make them myself. Then I decided to do mini croissants and they were super easy and quick to make! We also added charcuterie-inspired foods such as cheeses, salami, pepperoni, and crackers.

GAMES

About two weeks ago, Camryn said we needed to play games at her party. She wanted to pass a rose around in a circle, so we did Musical Pass the Rose. Weston was in charge of the party playlist and the game music. He started and stopped the music during the game. He had to face away from the circle because he felt so bad when the girls would get out. It made me really sad too! We’ll have to rethink games like that for future parties.

Camryn also wanted to have books everywhere. I went to the thrift store (actually four of them) thinking I could find a ton of vintage looking books for 25 cents each. Boy, was I wrong! Each book was anywhere from $2-$10! I came home with about 8 books and only because they fit the theme so well. How was I going to find enough books to decorate her party the way she wanted? I asked my dad to look through his books and he found a few that fit the theme. A few days before her party, I had the idea to check out books from the library! I went to our local library and asked if there was a limit on how many books I could check out. There wasn’t and I scored 28 books!

Each year, we ask Camryn in advance if we could sing Happy Birthday to her. She did not want us to sing to her and she didn’t want us to say, “Happy birthday,” in unison either. Camryn doesn’t like the attention. She did throw us a curveball toward the end of her party and said she wanted to open gifts with her friends! I was shocked, but definitely didn’t want to pass that up. Her friends gathered around her and were excited for her to open all the gifts. It all happened so fast and I couldn’t keep track of who gave what, but I know Camryn loved every single gift!

Thank you to everyone who made my girl feel so special for her birthday!