Looly's Library Birthday Party

Shhh...Looly's library-themed birthday party was a quiet success.

Last year it was all about art. Before that, Little House on the Prairie. This year, Looly, the consummate book-lover, celebrated her seventh birthday literary-style. Thankfully, none of her friends are too cool for school just yet and all the young ladies (and Roo of course) had such a great time.

I'm kicking myself but I totally failed to get a picture of the invitations before we handed them out. So, you'll have to use your imagination. I ordered these old school library cards and pockets on etsy.com and we wrote in the party details. So cute and totally easy!

On the invitations, we asked guests to bring along a used book or two to trade in our homemade exchange library.

Looly invited 6 girlfriends and along with Bean, Roo, and herself, that made for 9 kiddos. We kicked off the festivities by painting and decorating book bags. Fabric paint, stencils, fabric markers, felt and foam stickers were a big hit and kept the kids occupied for some time.

Next we made these stained glass bookmark crafts. Due to the requisite abundance of glue on my kitchen table, hands, and everything else, I didn't manage to take any photos. They were simple enough, if somewhat messy, for the youngest kids to handle on their own and they all came out great. One word of caution if you attempt this craft: make sure you leave enough time for the glue to dry! Ours went home on paper plates with saran wrap because they were far from dry when the party ended.

After a thorough hand-washing, the kids took a book-themed trivia quiz. The questions were broad, covering everything from classic board books like Brown Bear Brown Bear to Harry Potter, so all the kids could participate regardless of reading level and experience. You can find the quiz here. It was even more fun than I had anticipated and the kids loved showing off their knowledge. To up the excitement, we handed out these adorable crocheted bookworm bookmarks as prizes.

Then it was on to writing our own books. Bare Books has a huge selection of blank books, puzzles, and all sorts of make-your-own crafts. The kids used markers, pencils, and crayons to write and illustrate their own stories.

Roo was especially proud of his masterpiece cleverly entitled, "My Own Book". Of course, that is a blank page he's showing off, but you get the idea.

Obviously for any KC party, snacks are key and we had no shortage. Check out the spread.

We served fruit, veggies, gummy "book" worms, fresh raspberry lemonade, and donuts from our farmers market but these chocolate cupcakes with pink and orange book cupcake toppers were the star of the show. I love etsy.

It was such a fun theme and really very easy to execute. Looly has such sweet friends who share similar interests. A couple of them even plunked down in a cozy spot during the party to get started on their "new" books from the exchange library.

Happy birthday, Looly! I can't wait to see what's next.