Audrey's 10th Fancy Picnic Birthday Party

This post is so bittersweet for me. No. You know what? This post is actually just sweet. I've blogged 8 out of 10 of my daughter, Audrey's, birthday parties. There was her first, her third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and now...double digits. Her 10th birthday. I can't believe my sweet little baby is 10 and I can't believe that SMP is now back in my hands (you can read about that ordeal here) so that I can tell you all about it. It's truly an incredible journey our family has been on, right alongside all of you. So today, for me, is a good day. A day to share the details of my little girl's birthday and to revel in the fact that so much of my life has been documented here on Style Me Pretty. Thank you Ruth Eileen for always being right there to make sure that our memories are as beautiful as they were in that very moment when you snapped the pic.

THE THEME Remember that 6th birthday party that I mentioned above - the State Fair one where we had a whole bunch of baby animals? Well, Audrey has asked to have those same baby animals for basically every party since. And this year, I finally agreed. So she and I tried to figure out a theme that would make sense with the entertainment of the day - which was tough since she was turning 10 and she also wanted it to feel grown up. We decided on a fancy pants, upscale picnic. Boxed lunches with comfort food, but set against a pretty dining table in a super chic color palette. I kind of loved the end result.

THE INVITATIONS Going with our picnic theme, the invitations set the tone of the party in the cutest way. I was actually an invitation designer in a former life, so I always do the invites for our parties. I've done teeny tiny American Girl invitations, T-shirt sleepover invitations, invitations printed on balloons, rolling pin baking party invitations, you get the drift.

But of all of our invitations past, I truly LOVED these little cuties. I found miniature picnic baskets on the cheap that I filled with Sour Patch Watermelon Gummies. I tied a very tiny little invitation to the front using delicate gold ribbon and...

what you don't see is that I tucked them into white bakery boxes with pink and red raffia, then we hand delivered them to the 9 little girls (who live in our neighborhood so it sounds far more glamorous than it actually was) as a surprise treat in their mailbox. COLOR PALETTE I've always thought that simply defining a color palette, no matter how in depth or layered it might be, is the easiest way to make a party feel really cohesive. Seeing that we were going with a picnic theme, I started with a really good black and white Buffalo plaid.

Then, we layered on pinks, reds and golds. Keeping in that palette meant that every little detail made sense stylistically which made the decor a piece of cake.

THE FOOD We went round and round on the food. As a host, you want something that you can prep ahead. As a kid, you want something delicious. As a mother, you want something that isn't going to send them off the rails in terms of nutrition.

So tucked inside our boxes you had, Chicken Sandwiches (just Bell & Evans chicken patties & hamburger buns), little jars with cut carrots and ranch dressing and a bag of chips. I lined the table with small containers of strawberries family style and the girls each got a San Pellegrino or a water. Oh and I used a white paint pen to write, "let's picnic" on the inside of each box. Cute, right? BROWN BOXES | WHITE PAINT PENS | BLACK & WHITE RIBBON

THE CAKE (debacle) Okay the cake was quite possibly my crowning achievement of the day. I ALWAYS make my kids' birthday cake. They are far from perfect but, it's fun for me and the kids love watching them come to life. I've made lego cakes and unicorn cakes, pancake cakes and tiny little baby cakes, candy cane cakes, puppy dog cakes and pink flower cakes. This year, I attempted to make this gold sequined cake. Got all of the supplies, got my cake baked and set up, layered on sprinkles and got ready to paint. And then I started painting. And realized that it was going to take about 10 times the amount of gold luster dust than I had actually purchased. And I had less than one day. So - and this is where I just might be a baking genius - I called up the Cheesecake Factory, bought one of their dark chocolate fudge cakes and brought it home. Smart, right? Only to then find that the cake came pre-cut with paper inserts separating each piece of cake. No bueno. Pre-cut, pre-fab cake doesn't not a homemade looking cake make. Now, brace yourselves for this next part. My mom watched this whole ordeal and I thought she might have an actual heart attack (not really because we're talking about cake, but kind of). I pulled out all of the paper from the cake slices and scraped off the entire top layer of chocolate ganache with an offset spatula. I warmed the busted up ganache in a bowl in the microwave until it was soft again and I put it right back on top and smoothed it all out. I then wet the spatula with warm water and "shmushed" the cut side of the cake together so that you couldn't tell it had been pre-cut. Finally, I used fresh flower spikes and pretty florals to re-decorate the top. AND.... BOOOOM, people! A custom-ish cake was born. CAKE | GOLD CAKE STAND | BEST DAY EVER SIGN | FLORAL SPIKES | FLORALS

FLORALS There is one reason, and one reason only, that this party was as pretty as it was. Fifty Flowers. Who GRACIOUSLY sent us a whole slew of red ranunculus, pink peonies and other gorgeous stems to decorate the table. Having built a party or two in my day - though being FAR from a floral expert - I tackled the centerpieces myself and loved the result.

I used black urns fit with soaked floral foam and just added in one flower at a time until each had the look of a casual but fancy (yes, I know) garden vibe that I was going for.

DECOR The centerpiece for the decor was our balloon garland. I've made one other balloon garland and it almost sent my sweet friend Jess into labor thanks to the fact that A. It was her due date and B. Watching me try to manhandle the beastly way that I approached it with massive balloons, chicken wire, actual cement and then a little rubber cement, was as close to ludicrous as you can get. So this time, I did things a little different. I followed THIS tutorial and it was a TOTAL BREEZE. As in, came together in an hour or two and looked completely adorable.

Our Flower Stand was another part of the decor and included just a whole bunch of mix-matched buckets filled with flowers of every kind. Confession time. Being a founder of a blog like SMP has its serious perks. One of which is that we often have leftover flowers from photoshoots that were provided by the INCREDIBLE Fifty Flowers - which is exactly what happened here and why we had this flower stand in the first place. If I were doing it without this very amazing perk, I would stick with inexpensive blooms like carnations and greenery.

RED BALLOONS | ROSE GOLD BALLOONS | PEARL PEACH BALLOONS | BUFFALO PLAID TABLE CLOTH FABRICGOODIE BAGS Tucked inside of the goodie bags were picnic inspired, sleepover treats. A strawberry shaped bath bomb, a fruit shaped squishie, a sweet little gold scrunchie (yes, the are indeed back), a pink or red nailpolish and strawberry shaped eye masks.

I found the jute bags at Nashville Wraps and added tissue paper and a pretty black and white striped ribbon.

ACTIVITIES Well first, Barn Babies. Adorable little baby animals that when swaddled, go completely docile and the kids can hold them and cuddle them. And while this may seem like an activity for younger kids... 10, was the PERFECT age.

The girls were gentle with the animals, they listened to the instructors, they were calm and they fell totally in love with each and every pet. It was quite cute. After dinner, we did two easy picnic games - find 5 gummy bears in a plate of whipped cream AND eat a donut off a string without your hands. The winners got a makeup bag filled with leftover goodie bag treats.

After that, the sleepover portion began and I plugged them into a movie (Freaky Friday) and called it a day. Sort of. There was a lot of "can I have a water, can I have a snack, can we play tag," screaming, jumping, running, laughing, LOUDNESS, you get the drift. As 11 o'clock came around, I told the girls that I was calling parents to do an early pickup for any that didn't go to sleep. I lied. I would never. But it shut them right up and they were asleep in ten minutes. Perfection.

Photography: Ruth Eileen Photography | Flowers: Fifty Flowers