strawberry birthdays

Sweet spring birthdays.

Lilyana’s birthdays have always been so fun to put together. As a big bright-blue-eyed, spunky little girl, her parties have always been vibrant, colorful, and sometimes silly (who remembers the party inspired by I Know A Wee Piggy ?)! But one common theme has always remained the same - the cake must contain strawberries! Some years it’s a lemon cake with a strawberry frosting, or a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.

This year, she turned 12.

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that fact. My darling girl is now on pointe and turning into a graceful little lady. Nobody warned me that this season would be filled with so much change - Wasn't it just yesterday that she was born? So soft and round a head full of red curls? When did she go from a little girl, with her big bows on top of her head making people smile as she squealed over the color pink (every single time she saw the color pink!) to a responsible girl who doesn't wear big bows anymore and instead loves to get French tip manicures, cook dinners on her own and just got her first pair of little wedge sandals.

So, what was I going to do for her birthday party this year? She’s starting to grow out of younger activities, but she still loves so much to play and have fun, just with less toys and more games and activities.

We ended up having the most wonderful party for her, and I wanted to put down what we did so that if you find yourself in a similar place with an almost teenager, maybe this will help you plan a party!

Lilyana and I started at the drawing board and both settled on the first thing - the cake must have strawberries.

We talked about color schemes or a themed party, and then I asked her what if we used strawberries for the whole party? She loved the idea. It wasn’t childish, but we could also make it not feel super grown up. Like a springtime garden party. We found a tablecloth that was just perfect. I am already thinking of using it again! As we continued shopping for supplies, we found some adorable strawberry napkins, lovely pastel balloons and some strawberry paper lanterns. It was all coming together! We decided to keep the plates and cups neutral and she picked some white plates for the cake and black plates and cups for the snacks.

The party was set to start at 2:00pm. I didn’t want to deal with perishable items and we weren’t serving a meal. Lilyana loves charcuterie boards, so we brainstormed and compromised with a snack board. Cheesy crackers, pretzels, fresh fruit, macarons pistachios and some exotic dried fruits and flowers. We also picked up some strawberry juice to tie it all together.

When the guests first arrived, the kids played some card

games and “keep the balloon in the air”. Once everyone was filled up on snacks, we began the main activity of the party.

At 12 years old, her interests are changing, so I suggested that we do a scavenger hunt through the city. She was immediately sold. A few days prior, I poured over a map of our city center and mapped our way through the city. Then I wrote up witty clues and rhymes that would take the kids from place to place and eventually I had 13 clues in total. I almost added a few extra things, but when I saw that we were going to have 55 mile per hour winds, I pulled those and kept the loop closer to home.

At each point of interest, they had to pose for a group photo. Total walking time, if you just walked from point to point would have been 30 minutes. At the end of the trek, I think we made the loop in just under an hour. As we are currently living in France, I wrote the clues in both English and French. If she couldn’t fully decipher the French clue, she had the English one for backup. Each child took a turn reading the clues and it was really fun to see which one solved the clue first!

Off we went as a group, the kids running a bit ahead and the adults trying to keep up amidst our conversation and laughing. It was a great success with the adults being invested in the game too! The kids are already begging to do another one. The last clue brought us back to our flat where there was a pile of letters for them to unscramble. That last message told them to go to the café at the end of our street for cake and refreshments.

It is true that birthday parties for little kids are much easier to plan and put together, but I am really enjoying getting input and ideas from the birthday child, and coming up with activities that are engaging and exciting. I was excited to link our tablecloth, but unfortunately, the store we purchased ours at is a French store without a website - but I linked some similar ones.

I hope that our fun day celebrating our sweet Lilyana will inspire your next party.