Painting Party

Our oldest turned 6 in early November. She had agreed that she didn’t need to have a character themed party. So we looked at a few birthday idea sites online and were both struck with the fun and creativity of a pottery painting party at the Polka Dot Birthday blog. Then we found a personalized downloadable painting party invite from Whirlibird for $10 (more than the store bought kind in America but less than the time I would have to put into making my own).

We don’t have those come-paint-your-own-pottery stores like they do in America and the UK. Thus began the search for what we could paint. We ended up buying some tiny canvases and easels from CASA (here in Portugal) and some cardboard frames from IKEA . I also had the kids paint their own paper sacks with foam stampers as their treat bags.

My daughter was also pleased with the idea of having paint balloons to throw darts at. This was an acceptable alternative for her instead of us making a piñata as we had for her sister in the spring. My husband and a family friend graciously filled balloons with a mix of paint and fabric fix fluid using a syringe!

We added the fabric fix because the balloons were attached to a board covered in a cheap tablecloth I bought from the dollar store. We thought we might come near using a splatter paint tablecloth more than a splatter paint board. I didn’t want the paint to wash out the first time I washed the tablecloth. Therefore we also had to keep paint off of the kids! They wore their kindergarten smocks we call “bibes” here. (All of us adults are the ones with permanent spots on our clothes!)

I decided upon a rainbow cake after seeing one at Fowl Single File and a artist’s palette of cupcakes after seeing the idea on etsy (but I cannot find it now—sorry!). I almost waited too late to get an inside pic of the cake—one of the last pieces!

The before shot of the cake…and yes those are real sparklers. You can buy them in the grocery store here in the party section. It’s the thing to do here.

The last time my mom sent some smocks they came with these mats that were supposed to protect the floor. One made a great tablecloth!

Two other foods I’ve wanted to make overseas and hadn’t yet were caramel apples and popcorn balls. They seemed like good fall food for this party. All the Americans enjoyed them (in comparison to the other nationalities who think our sweets are much too sweet).


My sweet friend Cristi helped me set everything up, even dividing up our version of M&M’s here into colors for the table.


I have to say this is one of the most peace-filled parties we’ve had overseas—could be our kids’ ages, keeping the kids busy, the America and Portuguese helpers, getting more done in advance, just making less, or many prayers. So thankful for how it turned out!  {And if you want to see the kids in action…}


Post Addendum: Several readers have asked to see what the tablecloth looked like after all the paint. Here are a couple shots: One full shot and one of the tablecloth in action at our tie-dye party!