A Book Lover's Birthday Party

When Callie was little we used to have what we called a Friend Party one year and then the next year would be the Family Party.  Every once in a while, it would be both.  Over the years though, as the number of cousins increased, it sort of evolved into a most years being "just" family.

I don't organize games, I don't pass out favors, I don't rent restaurants or party rooms.  There were games and maybe a balloon to take home in the younger years, but really, all they care about is having fun together.  As long as there is cake (or sugar in some form) and presents and lots of laughter, that's all anyone really cares about.  I've seen some (several) adult men fall asleep at our parties, but no kids have ever fallen asleep or complained because there was no bouncy house in the back yard!

Anyway,  I wanted to decorate and being an October birthday, there is often a fall theme going, but I wanted something different this year.  What does Callie love more than anything?  Reading.  I had seen some really neat things done with old book pages so of course we went to Pinterest to see what we could find.  My criteria was that it be simple and easy.  Callie does not like to do crafts that much and I didn't have time to spend on elaborate decorations.

Here are some of the pins we found.....a book "cake", these votive holders and of course a few other ideas that we didn't use.  Kate likes to be crafty and she came up with making a paper chain with old book pages.  It was really quite cute.  She asked for some pages and disappeared and then came down with one a bit later.  I think she asked, "Is this okay for the party?"  So sweet!  Callie wanted her book cake to be less "childish" than the picture on Pinterest so we just used an old pair of her glasses to go on top.  It all turned out perfect.  It was so Callie!  And so easy and free!!  You could use funny pages or copy pages from favorite books, there are a lot of ways you could go with these ideas.

 

 

 

The best part was actually something I thought of all by myself.  That's rare, I'm usually just copying someone else!  While looking at all the book page ideas I thought it would be great to have everyone write a poem to read to Callie at the party.  Funny or serious, whatever they wanted to come up with. 
 
It was so great!  The kids and adults wrote things and read them.  Some were funny, some a combination and some more serious and they were all awesome!!  I couldn't even pick a favorite if I had to.  They were all so creative and just perfect for Callie. 

Here's mine......Roses are red, violets are blue.  Your 15 now, boo hoo hoo!  Brilliant isn't it? LOL

And of course there was cake too.  Ice cream cake.  Yummy!

 

Terrible picture quality here, but I can't have a post about Callie's party without Callie!  I took more videos than of her than photos this time.

 

 

This was probably my favorite party yet!