Waiting for Spring

The Purim Party

(How it all began)

It started here. It was innocent enough. Emily did not have a great deal of money for her costume, but halfway through the gathering process announced that she didn't want to be a princess anymore, but wanted to be a fairy. So we talked about it, and after some deliberation, I offered to make her wings, if she would just buy some tulle.

This started the DIY extravaganza that was our Purim Party this year. I don't have pictures of everything. In fact, for all that we did, I have very few pictures, but I thought I'd share what I did have, and tell you about our projects. Prepare yourself. :)

PART UN --- What really propelled it.

Sara had this idea. (I love how she always blames me for going overboard, but when you trace the ideas back to the root: typically? typically it was her idea first, and I'm just realizing it.)

Her idea was to decorate the plastic cups for the party with glitter and paint. This was generated because we wanted an activity that the girls would help us with. Also, Sara was alluding back to the beginning of Esther where it says that every goblet at King Xerxes table was unique.

Easy enough, right? Dot here, glitter there, Voila!

But no. You see, Sara will very rarely do anything without looking up instructions of some kind, even if they don't exist. So before I know it, she's printing off pictures of persian gold etched cups to duplicate.

I upped the anti while we worked. Sara mentioned that she thought it would be cool to add scriptures to the cups, which I immediately vetoed. (too much work to paint.) Then I had my brilliant idea. What if--- what if we painted each one with a unique picture, and took a piece of paper and wrote out a correlating scripture and a promise from the Lord for the cup holder.

So, oh yes, we individually painted 24 cups with our spare, spare time.

Sara painting

Emily with one of her cups

Danielle painting

The rose, and the rainbow on top, Sara's Alpha & Omega, the wisdom cup, and the waves

Almost all the cups--- missing just three that hadn't been finished yet.

Emily's Sunrise, and the wedding cup

the paintbrush, the blood, the breastplate, and the growth cup

Smiley face--- he had to be done.

Sara's Garden Cup

My Lion

(Hebrew text: Judah)

The cups, believe it or not, were a smashing success, and many people's favorite part of the party. Sara and I sat down the other night and talked through who picked what cup, and the promise it contained. It was thoroughly amazing how absolutely perfect each promise was as it found its bearer. It was downright... well, y'know, God.

We loved it so much. Sara wants to start a business called "Party Prophecy Cups" and do this for a living. :) It is ALWAYS such a joy to pour out such specific blessing on people like this. We had exactly the right amount of cups, and everyone took home a promise and scripture that was uniquely suited to them! Even the children! It was so wonderful.

I don't really have pictures of the rest of the projects--- missed catching the handmade gold lantern, the hand painted "HONOR" banner that is still hanging over our patio door (I could take a picture, but I'm feeling lazy,) the gold curtains and cloths we hung everywhere, the fabric draping, and just general decorating awesomeness.

But I do have some--- so I'll point out in the background as we go.

Pre-Party. Sara at her Hamantaschan making station. Please note Burgundy ceiling draping. Oh, and the mosquito netting, which I spray painted gold in an Ombre pattern for the event.

COOKIES!

One of my many food projects. These were homemade tex-mex mini egg rolls. (I rolled 30 of these, AND 30 cream cheese wontons in 25 minutes. It was my new record.) The table of food was amazing. The aforementioned two, Sara's Hamantaschan, homemade humus, baked apples stuffed with apricots and dates, german chocolate cake, mushroom risotto, spring vegetables, tablouleh salad, etc. etc. etc.! (amazing food, I tell you what.)