Everyone confirmed their availability for the party on May 21^st at 3pm. Twelve girls were coming and Shreya was thrilled. She couldn’t wait to get together with her besties and have a blast. While she began the count down, I started to monitor the weather for the day. It was toggling between rainy and cloudy with the forecast changing every time I checked it.

It was supposed to be a backyard party and we wanted a perfect day for the girls to enjoy. I started to make all the arrangements for the party with my fingers crossed. We did not plan a rain date, plan B was to move the party to the basement. I know it wouldn’t matter much to the kids, they’ll have fun wherever they are. But it was a big deal to me, I wanted it to be nice, bright and beautiful.

The party day dawned beautifully. The weather turned out to be just the way I wanted it to be.  73 deg F, cloudy and mildly breezy. An overcast day also means soft light for nice outdoor photography. I was doubly happy. My family was very busy knocking off things from the checklist that I had put together for every individual, including Shreya. The husband was getting the deck ready. Moving the grill and patio furniture down to the basement, cleaning the deck, setting up the party tables/chairs etc. were his jobs for the morning. My son had to get the balloons filled, put up the lawn sign, help dad to move the furniture, and pick up our quick lunch ordered from a restaurant. Shreya was busy getting the party favors ready while getting lost in her TV shows. I was working on a million other things while being a ring master to get all the assigned jobs done. It was a very busy and fun filled morning.

I was in a great mood until I went to the baker to pick up the birthday cake. They had messed up the decoration big time. Despite the exact specifications and a picture shared with them, they did a very poor job and I was extremely disappointed. They gave a dozen reasons to justify their mess up instead of even trying to make it better for me. It only frustrated me more. I did not want to waste any more time with them. So I returned the cake to them and ran to a grocery store nearby to pick up a pre-made cake and get some very basic decoration done. I tossed all the shots that I had styled in my mind with the cake.

I came back home to see a beautifully set up deck. The tables were arranged well with the covers neatly spread and pinned. Paper pom-poms were tied to the deck railings in a pattern and they gave a lovely look to the set up. Balloons went to wherever they were supposed to go. The backyard wore a gorgeous party look. That relieved me of my frustration from the cake a little. Everyone was happy, but they were ready for a break. Lunch had just then arrived. What a perfect timing!

While we were just about to break for lunch, dark clouds gathered suddenly from nowhere and it started to drizzle. All of us ran in different directions to undo everything that we were admiring just a minute ago. I grabbed my phone to quickly check the weather and it was supposed to rain for the next two hours. It was 1 pm already :(. Hard luck, really! Thankfully, it stopped raining before we finished our lunch. We were back on our toes to get the deck back in shape.

The door bell started to ring at 2.55 pm and kids started arriving one after the other. Soon, all twelve kids were there and the party began. They played in the yard for a little bit before choosing their spots to paint. Every child had their own imagination and creativity to turn the white canvas into a brilliant piece of art. We cut the cake and sang happy birthday for our little cupcake while the canvases were drying. Every bit of the party went perfectly as planned, no goof ups, not a glitch. Finally I could put my feet up and sit comfortably on the couch brimming with pride and a big feeling of relief when the door bell rang again. That was an unexpected guest for the evening. Sigh!

The following sources provided me with a great deal of ideas to plan the party. Thanks so much everyone for applauding my creativity, but I owe a good part of the credits to these lovely bloggers. They made my life super easy by sharing all their brilliant and creative ideas on Pinterest. I have of course added my own touches and tweaks to make them suit my taste. Nevertheless, I can never claim some of them as my own ideas.

1. http://karaspartyideas.com/2013/06/colorful-art-party-karas-party-ideas.html
2. http://blog.hwtm.com/
3. http://inviteanddelight.blogspot.com/2012/06/art-party-ellas-3rd-birthday.html?m=1