Slumber Party and barbecue

Hello Crafters, 

how have you been?

As you probably don't know, my girls' Birthday is in summer. Traditionally we always had rather big parties in our garden. Since we moved, we don't have a garden anymore and rather more guests on top, inviting old and new friends. 

Therefore party planning was a bit of an adventure for me this year. I decided on inviting just a few girls for a sleep over on the night of the Birthday itself, and to invite all the other guests for a barbecue party a day later at a barbecue hut that is rented out locally. 

Running late with the invitations - as ever - I decided on a very clean and simple design. I let my girls do the ink blending with my new make-up brushes (I got the cheap option, not the original) and added two heat embossed sentiment strips on foam tape. We embellished the envelopes with the same patterns and that's it. I think they turned out gorgeous.

Above are all the designs for the slumber party, but the BBQ invitations were the same, we only changed the sentiment a bit. 

Both parties were a bit of a challenge for me. For the sleep over we played Exit - the game and it was huge fun, but also a bit hard to keep the girls happy and concentrated. There was always one feeling left out because not all could look at the material at the same time. 
It also went way too long, we had to break off just before midnight, when they became too tired. We finished the game the next morning, which was a bank holiday, so there was enough time.

After the sleep-over guests had left - amazing what a mess 5 girls can make in just one night - I had to finish preparations for the barbecue party. And the weather wasn't looking good. I had been watching the forecast with growing desperation for days, and it proved right unfortunately: rain and thunderstorms. 

At some point I had to make the decision to either clean up the place and party at home (35 person, OMG!) or risk the weather and go to the hut anyway. Had it just been rain, the hut might have won, but with thunderstorms coming I decided that was too risky. 

I have two wonderful friends who helped me a lot that day, one came over to help me cleaning up the slumber party mess and the other brought so many things I can't even remember them all. Plates, glasses and cutlery, so we didn't have to use throw-away things, salads and meat for the BBQ, the list is endless. She also kept constantly cleaning up in my kitchen during the party, so I hardly had any mess afterwards. Girls I love you, you're the best! Thanks so much!

Since I didn't own a barbecue, I actually had to borrow that as well. First thing I bought after the party is a gas powered barbecue for our balcony. We've used it so much since, that my girls are already growing tired of it. 

Meet my new baby, first time in use.

Despite having to improvise so much and not really having space for so many people, we had a lot of fun. I think next time I'll skip renting the hut, the weather seems never to be stable at our Birthday parties anyway.



Love
Ela




Challenges:
CAS on Sunday: #162 Use a Stencil
TCP Tuesday: #360 CAS