Anna Claire and Mallory's Watermelon Picnic Party

We celebrated Anna Claire and Mallory's fourth birthday Saturday with a watermelon picnic party! We were blessed with beautiful {though warm} weather and lots of family and close friends were there to celebrate with us.

I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time playing in the back yard, but it sure did get hot quickly!

So, after singing "Happy Birthday" and having cake and {melted} ice cream, we moved inside to open presents.

It's always a goal of mine to do a better job of getting more pictures of family, but I don't think I did any better this year!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone for being so kind with your gift giving. The girls got books, puzzles, games, new beach chairs, cute outfits, and lots more! I'd say we're all set for a fun~filled summer!

 So, how does one pull together a watermelon picnic party? It all started with an applique'...

This watermelon wedge is one of the easiest applique' designs I've ever stitched, and Anna Claire and Mallory's seer-sucker jumpers, my first fully~lined jumper, was so easy to make. It's the Abigail jumper by Bonnie Blue, and I've already got plans to make two more {that would be four more!} for the girls for this summer! Oh, and we can't forget their new hair bows I made using my newly discovered hair~bow~making~method {so much easier}.

I was really lucky to find coordinating invitations, thank you notes, party favor tags, and banner from Tiger Lily Invitations on Etsy. Adorable!!!

We served a simple spread of crackers and cheese {which turned into fondue}, veggies and dip {which became a steamed veggie plate}, and a watermelon fruit basket carved by yours truly!



The cake{s}! My mom did it again making two two~layered pound cakes decorated like watermelons. So cute and so yummy {we are still eating leftover cake!}







 What's a picnic without lemonade?

I count myself lucky to have found these watermelon plates and napkins online; there's not a lot out there to choose from! And, do you see my ribbon topiary in the back ground? That's one of two I made for the girls. It looks a heck of a lot easier to make that it was {not sure I got enough bang for my buck there}.

Our party favors were little picnic baskets from A.C Moore. I cut out a piece of pink gingham check fabric with pinking sheers and tied on the tag with polka-dotted ribbon.

Inside was watermelon~ shaped and flavored candy

Like the tag says, to all of you who celebrated with us Saturday, thank you for making Anna Claire and Mallory's birthday so sweet! We love you all!!