Meow if you love to PAR-TAY!!!!

The kitty cat invitations were sent. A vintage image was copied & 'glitterized', & some cat-like wording was added inside to lure potential feline partiers to a meowing good time!

(Cat graphic was found HERE.)

And I found an excuse to use my old-school label maker!

Finally, the day of my 4 year old's cat party had arrived!!! We decorated the sidewalks & steps with our usual festive chalk art & birthday greetings...

& I stamped some appropriately themed images onto brown kraft paper that I measured & wrapped around the little tables that the party guests were going to be sitting at.

When the wee guests arrived they did a craft. I wanted them to make "cat collars" so I purchased metal circular tags from an office supply store. I wasn't sure about what to tie them on---string? ribbon?----UNTIL I spotted these candy necklaces at the grocery store. SCORE!!! They were purrrrrfect! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

For a game I decorated Easter eggs to look like mice. Why is it that plastic eggs seem to multiply in my basement? Am I the only one? For the mice ears I used this really cool felt I got at the dollar store--the back side is sticky! Whiskers, eyes, a nose & mouth were drawn on with a permanent black marker.

The hind ends were embellished with leather string tails--just hot glue 'em on.

And the mice tummies were filled with coins--dimes, nickels & pennies to be exact!

I hid the mice in the front yard before the party cats even arrived. I told each child to look for the same amount of mice so it would be even & we wouldn't have any "cat fights". (Geez, I can't help it!)

One of my favorite parts of the party were the hats I made! I could've gone the "cat-ears-on-a-headband" route, but my daughter's previous birthday was a puppy party & we did the whole "ears thing" then. I glued pom-poms on the top of paper cone hats & added tiny little pointy ears to resemble a cat. Just a subtle touch, but I loved how they turned out. I couldn't find any cat paper to make the hats from, so I went with something fun & celebratory instead.

I always make sugar cookies for my girls' birthday parties--for the adult party favors. This party featured goldfish cookies.

I loved how they looked in the cellophane bags. They reminded me of the bags of fish you win at carnivals. I was lucky enough to find this adorable ribbon on clearance at Walmart.

OK, the cake is always a bit stressful. The decorating part I LOOOOVE. It's just the initial frosting layer that is the un-fun part for me. And I admit that my cat cake looks kinda like a bunny. For starters the ears are too close together. And secondly, my daughter wanted a red cat cake. I couldn't do it because I just pictured red frosting stains everywhere. So, she then requested "light red" which is really pink, right? So, it could very well translate to a spring bunny cake.

The really long striped candles came from Target. I love them! The kids ate their cake & ice cream out of real cat bowls bought at the dollar store. They thought that was super silly! They also got to take the bowls home. I even created my second pinata EVERS! The first pinata I made was 2 years ago at Pazely's "Bug Party". It was a bee & it ended up being HUUUUGE. This cat pinata was rather simple. I'm giving a tutorial tomorrow on my blog, so stay tuned!

Sadly, I barely got any pictures of the pinata bashing because I went inside to grab bags for the kids to collect their candy in, but when I came out, eager Mr. WhiMSy love had already led the troops to battle. This poor cat was destined with only one life.

The kids were so adorable in their party hats. I actually bribed them to take this photo for me. Some didn't want to wear their hats & some were falling off & some were comlaining that the string was too tight. I took about 10 photos of them & they actually held the word "Cheeeeeeeeeese!" for that long! HAHA!

The goodie bags are always my favorite part of any party. I should've taken pictures of the items BEFORE they went into the bags, but oh well. I purchased some sweet little stuffed mice from spidercamp, I made some kitty buttons with my 1" button machine using images from vintage children's books, some goldfish cheese crackers, glow-in-the-dark cats from the dollar store (like the stars you stick on your ceiling), chocolate Kit-Kat bars, tons of stickers, real-looking mouse candy & the tags are from time2cre8 (they look just like my little toothless birthday girl!). Oh! And the ribbon, with cat paw prints, is from the Dollar Store.

I attached yarn to each birthday guests goodie bag & we draped & looped the yarn over sofas, behind lamps, down the stairs, etc & hid them in all different spots when the kids weren't looking.

The kids had to wind their yarn around the cardboard tubes to find their goodies!

YAY for birthday parties! MEOW!

Oh & next year she tells me she wants a mouse party. Um, I'm gonna have to break the cycle somehow. Pretty soon we'll have the whole animal kingdom covered. Where does it end? Amoeba?