Placerita Canyon State Park was buzzing with little nature goers Saturday afternoon.

So many sweet friends came out and kicked up dirt or fell into the creek ~ all to help Elliott celebrate {SIX}.

{Mr. Owl, the party mascot}

Again, I kept the invites on the cheap and found some cute blank note cards and affixed the following message inside:

I wanted to keep the decor and food semi-simple since we had to transport everything. I decided to just provide grab and go type snacks…for the kids, I found some organic puffed rice bars with dried berries. I also had prepackaged Ritz cheese and crackers, Florida’s Natural fruit nuggets and frozen yogurt tubes.

For the adults, there were Larabars and some flax trail mix bars ~ chocolate coconut & pumpkin spice. I also threw together a HUGE 7-layer dip {refried beans, Trader Joe’s spicy guac, light sour cream with a little taco seasoning mixed in, raspberry & pineapple salsa, cheese, green onion and fresh tomato on top}

Beverages were just Lemonade Capri Sun, little Juicy Juice boxes and bottled waters.

I wanted to make my own trail mix, but then thought it’d be more fun to have the guests create it themselves.

I found the little green and yellow snack containers at Dollar Tree in the baby aisle. I thought they’d be perfect little containers to scoop the trail mix into.

{spanish peanuts, marcona almonds with cracked pepper & garlic, craisins, dried pineapple, coconut m&m’s, banana chips, yogurt raisins, mini marshmallows & pretzel bits}

{the frame says, “Not just for squirrels anymore…help yourself to some acorns & twigs!”}

For activities we had hula hoops, horseshoes and Pin The Fairy On The Flower…

We all did a mini hike and headed to a live animal presentation at 1:00…

Everyone sang Happy Birthday to our little nature girl.

Then they brought out a little falcon, a snake, a tarantula, a tortoise and an owl.

After the animals, we headed back to {camp} and had cupcakes….72 of them to be exact!

I went back and forth with baking my own cake, having one made, baking cupcakes, buying cupcakes…then I remembered the little {two-bite} cupcakes…I thought they’d be perfect for the outdoorsy picnic. No cutting, no serving, no plates. I bought 6 dozen at Smart and Final. Best. Idea. Ever.

Small enough to have a couple and not feel too guilty!

*****

I love how children’s parties kind of immediately take on their own agenda. You can have everything perfectly orchestrated in your head and then before you know it the little snack containers that were supposed to hold hand crafted trail mix are now home to tadpoles! And the big black sharpie that was supposed to be used to write names on water bottles was used to write “Allyson’s Tadpoles” or “Blake’s Tadpoles” on little green and yellow cups.

Love it. Never in a bazillion years did I think we’d be catching tadpoles!

I had to apologize to the parents for wet kiddos and muddy shoes {or muddy barefeet}!

Holden was so busy huntin’ tadpoles he missed singing to sissy and he wasn’t happy about it.

I loved seeing a majority of her classmates, dance friends and our oldest group of SCV pals come together and celebrate…

I kept the party favors simple ~ froggy yoyos, Ring Pops, pixy stix, fun dip and a little toothbrush and toothpaste combo!

*****

We couldn’t have asked for more beautiful weather.

Thank you to ALL {36 kids & 31 adults!} who crossed the creek to come party with us!

{and a special thank you to the friends who helped set up and break down and to my family for helping me get all the breakables to and from without a single thing being damaged…whose idea was it anyway to bring so much glass to an outdoor event? 😉 }

When I asked Elliott what her favorite part of the party was, she said “when we were catching tadpoles!”

Of course.

Please note: NO tadpoles came home with us. The {Park Ranger} said that they needed to be returned to the creek. {wink, wink}