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Claire’s St Patrick’s Day Birthday Party

Claire’s birthday was last weekend. I can’t believe she is already six years old. She was born in Boston in the middle of a snow storm, two minutes before midnight, which I was thrilled about because I didn’t want her to have a March 17th birthday. I mean, who wants to have a St. Patricks…

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Claire’s birthday was last weekend. I can’t believe she is already six years old. She was born in Boston in the middle of a snow storm, two minutes before midnight, which I was thrilled about because I didn’t want her to have a March 17th birthday. I mean, who wants to have a St. Patricks Day themed birthday every year? Apparently this girl:

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In our family we don’t do friends parties for every birthday and for Claire’s birthday this year we decided just to have a celebration at home and invite over our cousins that live in Westchester. I’ve talked about my sweet friend Jenna here before. She has absolutely cornered the market on cuteness – her clothes, her kids, her blog, are all amazing. And girlfriend can throw a mean party! Between Jenna’s skills and Claire’s enthusiasm about a St. Patricks Day party, I knew I wanted to do something fun for the decorating, while hopefully not breaking the bank.

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The Dollar Tree, Michaels and Party City came through for me. All of these stores have dollar or less sections that carry pretty cute stuff. You just have to hunt a bit, and then get creative. Streamers are two-for-a-buck at the dollar store, and buying eight rolls was an easy and cheap way to make a rainbow wall for our photos.

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It was Claire’s idea to make the chandelier look like a cloud that the rainbow was coming out of. We picked up a couple of these accordion garlands at Party city for $2 each. We added the green garland, satin bows and dangling clovers for good measure.

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I love that my girls came up with most of these ideas and that they executed a lot of it by themselves. Nothing makes me more proud than seeing their little creative brains at work.

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Since we are from Arizona originally, we hold true to the idea that a party’s not a party without a piñata. I showed Claire the Pot O’ Gold DIY piñata that Jordan posted a week or two ago and Claire said we just had to have it.

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This was my first piñata and I was surprised at how easy they are to make! And pretty fun actually. It took me and Claire about two hours in all to cut out the cardboard and glue the fringed tissue paper. We watched Darby O’Gill and the Little People while we were at it, to get us into the spirit of the thing. :)

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The pinata activity at the party worked out perfectly this time, which as any mother will probably know, doesn’t happen very often. 
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This time every child got two full turns at the bat and then Claire, the birthday girl, was the lucky one to bust it open. 
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Chocolate coins and gold nuggets were everywhere! I think the candy scramble is so hilarious to watch now, but I remember being so stressed out as a kid as soon as that candy fell out. Must. get. all. the. candies!!

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The kids used their party favor baskets to collect the piñata spoils.

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Claire and I found the tiny little baskets at Michaels for 99 cents each and just chose the ones with the most green on them.

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Claire embellished the baskets by herself with a little ribbon and some monogram placards made from stickers and cardstock.

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There was plenty of room in the baskets for more candy and other little trinkets we picked up in the dollar section.

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We also gave these little leprechaun clover pots as favors. Aren’t they so cute? My local flower bodega guy was selling them.

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We picked up the clover when we were buying some forsythia branches and a bunch or two of daffodils.  (you know it’s spring when the flowers start to get cheap again!) :)

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I think the rainbow backdrop was my favorite part of the party though.  It made for some fun shots of the kids.

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I have two instant-print cameras (both are really pretty inexpensive), the wide format is here and the small, credit card size is here. I’m finding it’s such a chore to get my digital images printed out these days that these cameras are such a treat to have on hand. Especially when we have visitors over. And seriously, who doesn’t love the magic of watching your image appear in a matter of seconds?

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We let the kids pick out their favorites to take home with them, and then once the party was over, the rest of the photos were moved to the coffee table, where I’m sure we’ll enjoy them for a couple weeks.

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All in all, we had a busy but a great weekend. Claire told me in her sleepiest voice last night as she was drifting off, that no one in the world has ever had a better mom or a better party than the one she had this weekend. Which of course made me feel like a super hero. I’d go to the dollar store every weekend for the rest of my kids’ lives if it meant hearing lines like that. :)

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27 thoughts on “Claire’s St Patrick’s Day Birthday Party

  1. I loved it! Please tell Claire that I was born on St. Patrick's day and I love that everyone is celebrating along side of me….love rainbows, lucky pots of gold and of course green and b-day cakes too.
    Love a good trash bag for eazy clean up too.
    pve

  2. We had a green-themed birthday celebration for my dad this weekend, too – Happy birthday to Claire!
    Love the rainbow streamer idea! And the girls' cloud is awesome! So fun – thanks for sharing!

  3. My birthday is on St. Patrick's Day and I've always loved that I was born on this day. All my birthday parties weren't St. Patrick's Day/Irish themed..only on was. The rest were like any other little kid's party. :)

  4. This was such a sweet post to read! I love how you found all your supplies at stores like the Dollar Store and Party City! My favorite parts were the rainbow streamers, the little prints, and precious Claire's words to you! What sweet memories!!

  5. What a fun idea for a themed party! I loved the coins inside the pinata, and the decorations were festive and adorable. I can't wait until my kids are old enough to have their say in the party theme and decor :)

  6. This is all too adorable! I am terrible at planning birthday parties.

    On another note, I'm been searching through your blog to see if I could find the source for that little table in the top right corner of the piñata pics but I haven't been able to. Can you please give me the source, I would love to find something similar. Thanks!

  7. Oh my goodness the last part has me crying. Being a mom is THE best! Don't you think?! Our little girl turns 2 in April and I have her party all planned out but I think I might need a streamer rainbow! Love.

  8. I absolutely love this post! My mom is also a super hero birthday party planner, and some of my favorite childhood memories were the two of us planning and executing themes for my birthday parties. The best one? The Troll party when I was seven. We even teased our hair so it would stick up in a high poney tail and sprayed with that washout dye!

    And good sponsor, Forceflex seriously is the best. I am selectively brand loyal about most home products, but these are the best.trashbags.ever! I've had a giant box that's lasted FOREVER!

  9. What a fun party. I just wanted to share that I also have a Claire who will be 6 this month…not only do you have great decorating taste, but great taste in names as well :)

  10. What a fun party! I admire your kids' creativity, too. I am a St. Patty's Day kid, and I have to say I have always loved this birthday. Everyone is in a celebratory spirit and it feels like they're celebrating along with me. I don't actually remember any actual Irish themed parties…just lots of green food!

  11. And I'm impressed you know Darby O'Gill and the Little People. The old Disney live actions are becoming forgotten. Another really fun one for kids is the Gnome Mobile. Check that one out!

  12. Happy Birthday to Claire! Thank you for sharing the day with us. Also, after you post with Evelyn and and Linus, it was so cute to see him near her while she batted the pinata. What a fun mom you are! Also, I love sneaking looks at your decor in these pics. Sorry I sound so stalker-like!! I'm not!!

  13. Such a great party for a special birthday girl.

    I do want to make one comment, though – a lot of those streamers and decorations look like paper that could have been recycled instead of going into the trash.

  14. Darling party!

    My little sister told me this really funny story about a birthday party she went to with her daughter. The poor, poor mom hosting the party had purchased a pinata but didn't realized that they generally aren't sold filled with candy, you have to fill it yourself. All of the children had their turns and whacked it open only to discover that there was no candy. So tragic! But so hilarious. :)

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