Michaela’s 7th Birthday Party

I don’t remember having birthday parties with friends when I was a kid. We always had a cake (homemade, from cake mix) with the immediate family, but that was about it. Michaela’s experience has been quite different.

For her 7th birthday, Michaela requested a Shopkins-themed birthday party. (If you don’t know what Shopkins are, you clearly don’t have a young girl. They’re these tiny plastic collectible things that are all the rage with the first-grade set.) We invited a dozen or so girls to our house and hired an artist to come to teach the kids how to paint Cheeky Chocolate – a Shopkins character – on canvas. It was the 7th grade equivalent of a “pinot and palettes” event, with pizza and cake instead of wine.

It was pretty clear where the party was…

The lady we hired (who was awesome, by the way) provided canvases, easels, paint, brushes, aprons, and the lesson.

The kids set to work.

And the canvases slowly filled with color.

The amazing thing was how different all the paintings ended up, when they all had the same paints and the same instructions.

This was how the teacher’s looked.

After painting, it was time for lunch, followed by cake. Mike made the cake entirely from scratch– the cake itself, the buttercream frosting, the fondant. Lippy Lips never looked so good!

Happy 7th birthday, Michaela!