When Your Kid Can't Decide on a Birthday Theme (a.k.a Our Paris/Disney Descendants Party)

We recently celebrated my daughter's seventh birthday (party photos coming soon!). But it was around that time that I realized that I had never posted photos of her sixth birthday. (D'oh.) But, really, the reason is simple (and stupid): The pictures were just not good. So every time I went to work on the post, I became annoyed. Unlike birthday parties past, we didn't hire a professional photographer--something I regretted immediately upon looking at the pictures--so I just kept putting the post off and putting it off. And then suddenly she was seven, and I hadn't documented my daughter's birthday simply because every photo wasn't Pinterest Perfect.

So, here I am. With my crappy iPhone pictures. And we're all just going to deal with it, okay? ;)

If you're confused what kind of party this is by looking at the photos, you'd be forgiven for that. My daughter went back and forth between two party ideas, and in the end, announced she wanted both. So we did a mash-up of the two: Behold our "Paris and Disney Descendants Party." I'd venture to say we may be the first and only ones to do this combo.

I went with the red, white, and blue version of Paris (versus the pink macarons-and-poodles thing that you see a lot), which seemed to fit in better with the Disney stuff. I ordered instant downloads of Paris and Descendants-themed art off Etsy, then printed them out for wall decor. (I'm still planning to re-use the Paris prints in a gallery wall for her room, but considering it took me a year to do this blog post, I'll probably be doing the gallery-wall blog post--and, okay, the actual gallery wall--around the time she leaves for college.). I scattered a few cheapie Eiffel towers all around, wrapped water bottles and juice boxes in Decendants printables from Etsy, added a few red, white, and blue balloons, and propped up Paris- and Descendants-themed books that we already owned as additional decor.

I covered the tables in French flag tablecloths and scattered Eiffel Tower confetti on top. The birthday girl's outfit was a replica of a Disney Descendants "Evie" costume (sewed by my mom!), and her American Girl doll was dressed in a matching version. A giant Eiffel Tower scene on the wall doubled as a photo backdrop. 

And my mom made the cake! We topped it with a mini metal Eiffel tower and some super cheap plastic Descendants rings. Done and done.

For entertainment, the girls colored French-themed pictures when they first got there (I just ripped out pages from some French coloring books), and then settled in for a magician show. (The magic show certainly wasn't Disney-ish. Or French, but oh well. C'est la vie.)

The favors were my favorite part! I made little baggies with a macaron pen, a macaron lip balm, an Eiffel Tower crayon, Paris tattoos, a Descendants ring, and an Eiffel Tower sugar cookie (again, made by mom!). Tied each bag up with red, white, and blue ribbon, and voila!

(Did I mention that I was super busy around this time and ended up having to pull this all together in a week? Thank god for Amazon Prime, patron saint of slacker moms everywhere.)

All in all, despite the lazy planning, my daughter and all of her guests had a great time. And, really, what could be more magnifique than that?

So merci for allowing me to go back in time to share my seven year old's sixth birthday party. See you in a few years when I reveal pics of the bash we just threw for her seventh! (Kidding. I hope.)