One of the challenges to having kids is birthday parties. We all know it can be fun but also a nightmare. The real challenge for me is having kids birthday parties in a small living space. My girls are born in months where the weather is unpredictable (February/April) so I usually end up having them here at home.

It’s not a problem if you have a big place. We don’t. We live in Italy. In the city. 3 room apartment.  Literally. 2 bedrooms, bathroom, hallway and a kitchen/dining room. That’s it. Sadly we have to be very selective as to who we invite.

This year I promised Miss V that she could invite her class but because of the reasons above, we opted for a girls only Manicure party!   I started by checking out all of the ideas on Pinterest. Since we are limited on space, I couldn’t do a full on spa party to we just focused on the manicure part. I made invites that looked like nail polish bottles. I thought it would be fun to make them look posh and fancy so I grabbed the glitter.. which might have been a mistake. I am still finding glitter everywhere!  We love doing our nails so we have a great selection to work with. I set out 3 plates and mostly used Kiko, MiNy, & Sephora products.  We had base & top coats, fast drying drops and plenty of nail art stickers.

Since this was such a girly party, I thought it would be fun to make the menu more of a spa party/tea party type menu. Easy, light food. Fruit, veggies, and tea sandwiches. When it comes to food, I ALWAYS  make too much. My motto is: Better to have too much than not enough. Of course this IS a kids party so we had to make sure there were plenty of chips.

Our Menu:

Prosciutto sandwiches

Turkey salad sandwiches

Cucumber sandwiches

Veggie Tray:

carrots

celery

broccoli

cherry tomatoes

bell peppers

cucumbers

ranch dressing

Fruit Tray:

strawberries

pineapple

apple slices

drinks:

water

sparkling water

coke

sprite

pear juice

pineapple juice

ACE juice (carrot, lemon, orange)

 

The girls had SO MUCH FUN! 12 girls all in a small space, laughing and having a blast trying to figure out which shade to use. When I asked for confirmations for confirmations for the party, I wasn’t sure if the mothers were going to stay or just drop their girls off. Luckily, I had invited a friend of mine as back up! One mother stayed and the rest had dropped their girls off so they could do their shopping or run other errands. Thanks goodness they were there to help. I could not have done it without them. While the older girls did their own nails, the smaller ones did need some help but mostly with opening the bottles and the occasional reminders to let the polish drying before trying other colors. It was seriously chaotic.. but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

 

 

 Miss V also had the brilliant (i think) idea of decorating cupcakes. This saved me the time and hassle of having to decorate them or finding room in the fridge for a cake. So once the nails were done and they did a second round of food, we cleared the kitchen table and set up the cupcake decorating station. Rainbow cupcakes were topped with buttercream frosting and sprinkles galore as well as smarties (kinda like m&m’s, and/or jelly beans). While I was completely exhausted the week of and week after, it was all worth it!

“I had fun at my party. Thank you mommy!”- Miss V