when life gives you lemons...have a party!

 sarah's birthday bash went off without a hitch.  we had a grand old time with her lemonade theme.  it was a bit of work, but so worth it as all the girls really enjoyed and appreciated it.  and most of all, they all had a fantastic time!

invites i made with this great french vintage lemon print.  it's super pretty in color, but as we only have a laser printer right now we opted to print it onto yellow scrapbook paper and it turned just fine.

 the centerpiece of the party snacks—the lemonade stand.  idea is here.  and also all of these ideas are on my lemonade pinterest board. we constructed the bones from pvc and it literally took 1 min to set them up.  instead of spending a ton of mulah on fabric for the awning i scored some yellow tablecloths from the dollar store. kachow! i didn't spend very much money on the decor besides the pvc, the mason jars for the drinks, the flowers, balloon, the paper goods, and the tablecloths.  everything else was taken from stuff i had around the house.  

i really didn't want to spend any money on these jars, but knew they would be a good investment and i can use them for other parties and/or gifts.  

yes, i painstakingly made each of these labels, but it was fun.  the girls forgot to take them home, so they will be refurbished as some kind of labels for future gifts and/or bookmarks of some sort.

 

the yumminess in the white bowl, otherwise known as lemon buddies, can be found here. and they are gluten free! score! we had one guest who needed these and our dad also is gluten free these days.

 

 this cake was to die for! lemonade cake with lemonade cream cheese frosting!! i added a bit more lemonade to the frosting for a little extra tartness.  we served it with raspberry sherbet. do i really need to describe how it tasted?

 lemon heads! and in aqua jars no less.

 the cookies in the foreground were so light and fluffy they were hard to stop eating.  and soooooo easy peasy! super sticky, but super yumtastic!

 i so wanted to make a little sign, but it was the 11th hour and was having a major brain crisis and couldn't figure out how to do it from square paper.  in all of her 7 year old wisdom grace says, "mom, just draw a triangle and then trace it on your paper and cut it out." duh?? it looked way better that way too because the triagles weren't perfectly even.  super homemade, just like a lemonade stand should be.  the circles of course were thanks to my fab circle cutter.  i love that thing!

the little lemon drawing in the dollar store frame laying around the house was even homemade by grace.  she drew a lemon on the paper and we mounted it lickety split onto some scraps of leftover paper.  (do you see those candies in the dish next to it???? zots!! those were a fluke that i happened upon in walgreens one afternoon.  super cheap too! the kids loved them and all their fizziness.)

 pretty daisies in jars. *sigh*

 lemon creme cookies and lemon drops.

 i think the check out guy at costco thought i was crazy when i bought 3 huge bags of lemons. (yes, we still have some leftover. and yes, we will be using them to make some lemonade and lemon ice box graham cake.)

 a no brainer, our famous lemon bars.

now before you get to thinking that i liquored up a bunch of middle schoolers, take a looky here.    it's lemon facial scrub you sillies! seriously sooooo easy to make and you could literally eat it if you wanted to, but i wouldn't recommend it.  we gave them as one of the party favors. containers were via the dollar store once again. (not sure if having a new one open up close to the house is really saving us any money...)

 lemonade, raspberry lemonade and lemon water.  i have to say the raspberry was a big hit.

some pics of the cute party goers.

 being silly.

 can you believe i found these awesomely huge boxes of lemon heads! and on clearance for 70 cents/box! thank you walgreens!  each girl got to take one home along with the paper clip bookmarks sarah made. again, super easy and cheap.  big bag of yellow paper clips from the dollar store and ribbon we already had.

 

 my lame attempt at tissue flowers.  let's just say they did not look like the ones from the tutorial.  sarah and i had fun giggling about them one late night while she was doing homework and i was attempting to be crafty.  

 

present time! present time! open a present and see what's inside! 

 

 

  the sorting hat! 

 

the hat came with her long awaited acceptance letter from hogwarts. (please don't tell the child that harry potter is not real.) 

 her own personal mini lemonade. 

 this gift will be played with for sure. 

thumbs up on the lemonade party!

after the festivities wound down, so did the girls, in front of a great movie and plenty of lemony snacks!