Making memories, not perfection

If you know me, you know that I have OCD. Literally. It can be very difficult. Everyone said, "oh once you are a mom you won't be a germaphobe anymore." That SO did not happen. I am still a germaphobe and still have panic attacks sometimes. However, I have learned to be ok with the fact that my house will simply not be spotless at all times. In fact, it is RARELY spotless. I clean, and as soon as Sadie walks back in the door it is a tornado in her room again. In this Pinterest and HGTV world that we live in there is such an expectation that you house will be perfect, you will workout every day, and cook an amazing meal, all while finding time to craft. Let's face it, that is NOT reality. 

Tonight we got home from work and Sadie begged to make cookies. I had recently bought some snickerdoodle mix to make with her so pulled it out. She wanted to do everything herself. She cracked the egg, mixed the ingredients, and formed the cookies without much assistance from me. I demonstrated how to roll the cookie into a ball and then put it in the cinnamon sugar mixture. She wanted to take it from there and I reluctantly agreed. She did a good job overall, but started spilling everywhere. I started to get onto her about it and then realized it's not about me and the fact that I don't like messes. It's about making fun memories with my daughter.

Sadie's 4th birthday, a "purple painting party"

Sadie turned 4 on September 29th and we held her party on Saturday the 28th. She invited several of her girlfriends to a "purple painting party." She LOVES to paint and LOVES the color purple so she did not want a rainbow painting party. She was very specific that she wanted a purple one. We planned for months! I used pinterest for some inspiration and then also came up with a lot of ideas on my own. I knew I wanted a really cute invite that was unique and found a great girl to do them via a college friend. She handmade each invite and made it to look like a paint swatch-exactly what I had envisioned!

(I need to preface before this post that these are not the best photos-I had just gotten my 5d mk ii body back from Canon from cleaning the night before, but had not gotten my 24-70 lens back yet, so was shooting with my big 70-200, which is so not ideal for small spaces! Please forgive that these photos are not as good as normal!)

 

 Her website is jaymamalme.com if you need custom invites!!

We let Sadie paint a canvas the night before and put this out front:

For the day of, I wanted the kids to be able to make a canvas using different shades of purple. We set up the outside with their canvas and smocks that I had custom made for each child (these also doubled as favors along with their art)

 

 

After some painting everyone came inside for a very fast brunch followed by gifts. As you can see, I tried to incorporate purple paint and anything paint related into the setup. I had champagne for the grown ups and put it in a paint can instead of an ice bucket, and put silverware in quart size paint cans. For the little ones I found these uh-mazing milk bottle toppers that I could not pass up. The owner is so sweet and did a great job customizing them for me. You can find them at http://www.edibledetails.com!

 

 

 

I also LOVE having flowers, so got several gallon size paint cans from Home Depot and had one of my favorite wedding planners/floral artists do some arragements. She did a great job! You can find her at: http://www.twodandelions.com

 

 

 

After eating, the kids were ready for the pinata so we headed outside to do that. Instead of getting a traditional pinata, with the help of my husband and parents, we were able to make one out of a paint can. You can view the tutorial that I found here: http://onecreativemommy.com/pull-string-paint-can-pinata-tutorial/

 The kids had a lot of fun trying to get the candy out!

 

After the pinata, it was time to head inside for cake!! My amazingly talented friend, Robin Armstrong of Cake Crumbles made this awesome paint can cake!

 

 

 

That's it! It was a success, thanks to everyone who helped me pull off all the great details. Sadie is still talking about how much fun her "purple painting party" was!