Rustic French Birthday Party

This was a family party for my "baby" who turned 11 this month. My girls decided the theme would be French way back in the summer (could have been our Montreal trip that influenced them but I can't say for sure).

We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was a beautiful, sunny, fall day.  I was hoping to have most of the party outside and we did!

I spray painted wine bottles with chalkboard paint to make these vases.  Her colors were gold and ruby and sunflowers became our symbol.  One stem of artificial sunflowers filled all of the vases.

We made moustache sticks as photo props. The tablecloth was on clearance at TJ Maxx and I'll definitely use it again. The colors were just perfect! My kitchen rooster came out for the party too.

This was the food table before the party.

I also made this birthday banner by printing out the letters and then mounting them on some scrapbook paper.

{the birthday girl and moi}

Lots of fun cousin time was had.

Don't you love these shoes?? 

Our hot tub gets put to good use as a bar area for outdoor fetes.

Sparkling strawberry lemonade for the kids.

We had some real sunflowers too.

This is one of the few photos of the food that I took.  It's a Gorgonzola Cheese Torte from Trader Joe's.

Some adult beverages

We gave out chocolate covered pretzels for the favors.

The dessert buffet.

She chose a pumpkin mousse with ginger snap layers as her 'cake'.  We also made red velvet-cream cheese cake balls and served up some store bought treats as well.

I hope all of her wishes come true!

I will be posting some recipes and tutorials from the party soon.