You won't find December birthdays wrapped in Christmas paper in our family. Continuing my birthday theme, I thought it would be fun to revisit one of my favorite parties. For Christian's 5th birthday, we painted Christmas ornaments at a local pottery studio. I made the invitations on my computer, fitting the text on a piece of clip-art. I printed the pages on card stock and cut out the artist palettes. Since he was turning 5, I let the Birthday Boy choose that many colors of puff paint. I applied squiggles of paint to each invitation. The paint added texture and interest to the invitations, and the shiny puff paint looks wet. For the final touch, I punched holes in each invitation and slipped a paint brush through. And I was ready to create my masterpiece:
The Cake ...
In keeping with our creative theme, I printed a copy of Van Gogh's Starry Night and used the image as a guide to trace the familiar painting into a crumb coat of icing. I filled in the painting with buttercream icing and Skittles. Yellow icing framed the masterpiece, and a paint brush placed on top of the cake added one final touch of whimsy.
Christian and friends enjoyed a colorful evening at the pottery studio. We sent the children home from the party with colorful bags of candy and mini-paint sets, and within a few days we had their ornaments to distribute. Hung on our tree, our children's pottery ornaments remind us of the magical year Christian turned 5.
