October was a pretty busy month! I took a week-long trip with my husband, there were halloween costumes to make, trick or treating to be done, and another KCW to plow through. But at the very beginning of October, my oldest turned 8. The rule in our house is you can invite as many people to your birthday party as years old you are turning. That’s confusing to say, but it’s a simple concept: you’re turning 8? 8 people can come to your party.

My daughter approached me in the summertime with the idea that maybe she could just invite 2 or 3 people and have a sleepover instead. I said yes right away, because 3 girls sounds like a lot less work than 9 girls. Turns out a sleepover is actually a 16 hour party and it’s a lot of work no matter how many people come. But she was so excited for her first sleepover I couldn’t say no.  Why have a sleepover, when you can have a sleepGLOWver?!

My daughter wanted a glow-in-the-dark theme and I have to say, it was awesome! She and I made a bunch of neon medallions (foldy circles? pretty party thingamabobs? no idea what they are called) for decorations. I bought a black light, thinking the medallions would glow at night. Turns out you need to buy 10 black lights to make that happen–one does not cut it. Oh well, they were fun to make and are still up because they’re so beautiful.

A few things did work , thank goodness. We jammed glow stick bracelets in the bottom of clear plastic cups, put another clear cup on top, and filled it with lemonade. Glowing drinks! Eight glow-in-the-dark spiders crawled on top of the cake. Glowing birthday cake!

We also put glow sticks and bracelets, light up balls, light up hair extensions, and glow-in-the-dark stickers in see through takeout containers. Glowing party favors! They looked super cool and the girls (and 2 brothers) didn’t even notice them until it was dark. We played glow-in-the-dark ring toss and a few games with the light up balls. Glow games! I bought glow-in-the-dark silly string for prizes. Big Glowing Mess!

I suppose it’s a sign of a good party when you have to vacuum in the middle of it. The party went glow-ver well (sorry). Pinterest did most of the thinking for me, I just went to Michael’s and bought everything glow-y. I stole most of the ideas from this amazing glow-in-the-dark party. I’m guessing that lady bought a whole case of black lights!

In our house we only do birthday parties with friends every other year (because, well, you get it). This was the year for everyone’s party! In February we had a fire and ice party for a 6 year old, in August we had a banana party for a 4 year old, and in October we had a sleep-glow-ver for a 8 year old. Whew! Next year it’s pizza and bowling for everyone!

Part one of my daughter’s 6th golden birthday is here.

When we went to the craft store for all things gold (for the golden birthday party) the gold pipe cleaners were kind of an impulse buy. It’s hard to resist sparkly, fuzzy gold wire. Turns out a bunch of pipe cleaners = room full of decorations in no time. I knew I wanted to do something like  Terri’s awesome wrapped pipe cleaner font project, but I skipped the yarn and spelled out Happy Birthday.  Writing with pipe cleaners is ridiculously easy (though knowing cursive comes in handy for once in your life).

Hanging them on the other hand is more difficult than it seems. There is just a lot to balance. Nothing a spool of thread an lots of tape won’t fix. Taking a photo in front of three sunny windows is also difficult, so you get the child’s eye view of the banner. A golden merry christmas would be very pretty I think, or even better something like this in gold pipe cleaners!

There were a ton of left over pipe cleaners, so I wrapped them around a star cookie cutter and voile! Also, crazy easy. And also would look lovely hanging all over a christmas tree. Seriously, I’m 33 and in love with gold pipe cleaners. I am so rock and roll.

Here is the banner and table on the evening of her party. The pipe cleaners and giant glittery 6 all sparkled in the light. I thought it was pretty magical, I’m pretty sure my big 6 year old did too. Oh, yes and a tiny gold bunting on the cake, because why not?