berry birthday

We have a berry special birthday in the house this month....Emily will be turning 7. My hubs happens to be out of town on a business trip on her actual birthday so we will be celebrating a little early this year...just decided this a few days ago...the date...that was it....until Monday night when I stumbled up some berry cute strawberry and gingham paper napkins and cups for .60 cents for each package at Michael's! I was so excited, they are so stinkin cute....I ran the berry idea past Emily and she loved it. Also while at Michael's I strolled through the clearance isle and what do I see? Two darling packages of strawberries (see below in photo) for 1.99 each....adrenaline is pumping, ideas running through my head, fun fun fun!!!

Up until last year for Emily's birthday we always had her parties at home, simple, had a few friends over but the $$ always adds up so fast for the gift, goodie bags, decorations, food, invites, the time, energy...it can get a little crazy....last year we let her have her party at Chuck E. Cheese :/. I will admit it was nice having someone else do the party, tell the kids what to do, where to go and the little goody bags were included so was the hefty price attached with it for food, etc. Emily really, really wants a Nintendo DS this year, really bad....so I told her she could have a friend party or a DS...decisions, decisions....she settled on the DS...we still want to celebrate her and her day so we are having just a small family gathering to celebrate her with some family goodies from Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins....keeping it simple and small along with the price tag for the theme....so far so good....I have also picked up some darling cupcake wrappers, happened to see some cute "berry sweet" ribbon on an end cap (once again at Michael's) and used a 40% off coupon for the paper/envelopes for the invites, these cost me next to nothing!

We are leaving Sunday for 5 days to Seattle then her party is a few days after we get back so I am trying to get it all out in my head what we are going to use for a little decor here and there and the goodies and food but I am keeping it simple and inexpensive, still gotta get that DS!!