Charli Beth {somehow} turned ten on April 6. It really has been the quickest and most rewarding ten years of my life. She has grown into such a little lady but even though she's growing older her young loving heart has yet to change. Even after all of the years, horses are still her number one passion. Even though she's more of the cowgirl type, she loves anything and everything to do with horses. But being from Kentucky, she has always held an interest in the Kentucky Derby. We also visited a retired race horse farm in Versailies, Kentucky during Spring Break. So as we began party planning for a huge celebration of year ten, she knew this would be the perfect theme.
To begin with it was more than likely the hardest party to plan. If you're having a party for ten year old girls, in your southern baptist church parlor then obviously that excuses all derby items such as bourbon, mint juleps and betting.
There are many girls within Charli's grade that are animal lovers and I knew they would love this idea as well.
It just so happened to work perfectly that the next week fell within Teacher Apprecistion Week and my PTO had a derby themed week. We were able to kill two birds with one stone, and reuse almost all of the decor.
In saying this, one of my favorite things about planning birthday parties is to make sure you can reuse most items. This is one reason why I always pick to use cloth fabric runners for decoration. These beautiful fabric pieces were picked out by Charli Beth. They are timeless and elegant. She may even want them one day for her future home...gasp.
Our menu:
Hot Brown Sliders
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Vegetables
Kentucky Caviar
Tortilla Chips
Derby Pie
Strawberry Cake
All Bryer horses are a collection from Charli, even though not all are Kentucky Derby breeds they helped make a perfect touch. We made the cloths from felt that I had left over from previous school projects and added numbers.
The girls came in and were seated together to start checking their derby knowledge, and of course this consisted of lots of giggles. We then were able to pray together as my Dad blessed the meal, and ate a terrific lunch made at the hands of my loving Mom and Mother in law. After everyone was finished we took turns making derby hats, and doing photo booth pictures. Once the cake was cut the girls are, unwrapped gifts together and celebrated the rest of the time playing.
It was so fun to see the girls at school the next week wearing their hats in celebration of Derby Weekend. Even though the Bluegrass State doesn't seem to shut down for the derby anymore, we sort of do. Charli has picked the winner the last three years, it's literally quiet amazing. I may not know what the future holds for this girl, but I can sure tell it's going to be amazing....
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