I was so excited when Mary Ashley wanted to celebrate her birthday baking and decorating cupcakes with a few of her closest friends. Weeks before the party I made an apron for each guest. I hung them in a corner of our dining room with Command Mini Hooks
and let the girls choose one when they arrived for the party. Sweet tags deisigned by Katy Larson and pinned to the aprons invited, "Let's bake some memories! Mary Ashley."
Here are six of our sweet little aprons hanging out, just waiting to be chosen. I made the girls' aprons using Simplicity pattern 0477, and two adult aprons using Butterick See & Sew pattern B5125. Fabrics used included several Nicey Jane fabrics by Heather Bailey; Ava Rose by Tanya Whelan; My Little Puppy by Kelly Tanner; and Hushabye Damask by Tula Pink.
"A daughter is a day brightener and a heart warmer." --Author Unknown
My dear friend Allison Hilyer took all the photos in this post. I treasure this collage she put together of me and my sweet girls.
The Birthday Girl got first pick of aprons.
We asked family friend Haley Scott to join us for the afternoon and had an apron waiting for her. The girls absolutely adore "Miss Haley." In fact, recently after Bible class Mary Ashley spotted me in the hall and cried "Mommy!" as she ran toward me. I stretched out my arms to hug her, but just as she was about to run into my embrace she noticed Haley beside me and turned at the last second toward Haley. Time seemed to move in slow motion as I bent over and hugged the air, and Mary Ashley embraced Haley instead. The humor was not lost on the crowd around us, and I had to laugh too!
I am truly thankful that my girls have such a beautiful young Christian lady who cares about them. And if I can take second place to a girl like Haley, I guess that's good enough.
After the girls donned their aprons, they moved to the next station to decorate a chef hat
with markers and paper flowers.
Katy has proven a great resource for party ideas, and she discovered an adorable idea for decorating chef hats on the Amy Atlas blog. Find directions for embellishing baking hats with large coffee filter and cupcake liner flowers here.
Aren't they adorable? Here are our little bakers in their new aprons and baking hats -- ready to get baking!
Our favorite bakers: (top row) Gracie, Claire and Emma; (middle row) Emma Cate, Mary Ashley and Lynleigh; and (bottom row) Ann Welch, Emma and Lizzie.
The oven is preheated, and we hope you will join us each day next week to bake up some fun!
Photos used with permission of Allison Hilyer Photography.
(I'm linking this post to "Show and Tell Friday" at My Romantic Home.)
