Spa birthday party

Our darling oldest daughter turned 10 today. TEN! Double digits! From the day she was born, we have talked about how much joy and excitement she has brought to this family. We love her fun-loving spirit, her creativity and ability to make friends with every person she meets.

She put quite a lot of thought into how she wanted to celebrate her 10th birthday. When she finally came up with an idea — after much deliberation — I couldn’t have been more excited! She decided that instead of having a big party somewhere, she would invite just a few close friends for a sleepover with a spa theme.

My brain immediately started racing with the thought of creating our own private spa. I think I gave my husband about one week’s notice that we were going to need to hang curtains from the pergola on our deck and hang Christmas lights around the top to make the “spa”. He was immediately up for the challenge. The only problem was when the temperature suddenly dropped about 50 degrees a few days before the party. I’m not kidding. One day, we were sweating it out with temps in the 90s and by the evening of the party, the low was around 40.

We didn’t let that stop us though. We spend so much time on our deck that it has become one of the most used “rooms” of our house. We both had been thinking about investing in an outdoor heater and the birthday party gave us the motivation we needed.

It turned out to be a beautiful day, but we did need the heater once the sun went down. It was a gorgeous evening hanging out on the deck with some of my favorite tween girls, eating cute food, enjoying spa treatments and eventually ending the evening with fondue.
For my friends who love party details, here’s how it all went.

DECOR
We decided to decorate in turquoise, black and white, which I thought turned out super cute. We gave each girl a “spa bag” which included a neck wrap that she used during the party, a bath poof (what are those called?), nail polish, nail graffiti, and candy. I found the bags on clearance at Wal-Mart for $2! Yay!
I used my Silhouette to make labels for the bags, and a “happy birthday” banner.

FOOD:
I served lots of simple foods, jazzed up on fancy platters. We had pb&j cut in the shapes of hearts and stars, pizza squares, ham puffs, veggies, chips and dip and flower-shaped bread spread with strawberry cream cheese.

I also had a “make your own punch” table, which I think might just be my best party idea ever! The punch was delish and the girls had fun trying out different combinations!

THE SPA:
Our “spa” had five stations. The first was a tub where they could wash their feet and use a sugar scrub. Next, we had a soaking tub with jets and a rotating massage tool. Next, they got to put their hands and feet in paraffin wax. After that, they could paint their nails. And while they were waiting they could use hair chalk.
The girls spent about 10 minutes at each station just talking and eating while they waited.

FONDUE:
Once we were done with the spa treatments, we went inside for fondue. A friend had loaned us her chocolate fountain, which added a little extra pizazz to the event.

My hosting duties didn’t stop there though. this morning, we celebrated with a donut “cake” for Alayna’s actual birthday and lots of other breakfast goodies. Alayna had specifically asked if we could serve decaf coffee in the morning. I set up a coffee bar for the girls, but none of them touched it! 🙂

INVITATION:
One of my favorite parts of the party planning was creating the invitation. I was inspired by the “menu” from the spa where I recently got my hair cut. I used it as my template to create her very own spa brochure. 🙂

invitation front
invitation back

I had a blast planning the party, and I’m pretty sure the girls enjoyed it, too. Once they were all settled in last night to watch a movie, I sat outside by the heater on the deck, a cup of punch and my feet in the paraffin wax and thought about how good life is!
Happy birthday, 10 year old!! We love you tons!