You Say It's Your Birthday...Beatles-Themed Party

My niece who will be seven next week requested a Beatles birthday party. My dad died in mid-2011 and he and Kyleigh were very close. He was very into The Beatles and got her into them as well. I remember that he used to sing "Dear Prudence" to her to wake her up when he took her to daycare. Of course he substituted Kyleigh for Prudence. Anyway, Kyleigh asked for a Beatles party this year, and I had a lot of fun complying as Daddy passed on his love for The Beatles to me as well. This is what I came up with:

Strawberry Fields
I crushed fudge-filled Oreos to make "dirt" and topped them with strawberries.

Apple Studios

I made cupcake microphones using ice cream cones and cupcake decorations. I now know that you should NOT make these ahead as they collapsed somewhat overnight. They still turned out pretty well. The kids especially loved them.

The cake

Kyleigh wanted a strawberry-flavored cake and wanted me to "draw all of the Beatles on it with icing." I know there are people out there who are that talented when it comes to cake decorating. I am not one of them so I made the Beatles logo out of sugar paper instead. She didn't mind at all. As I am very much an amateur when it comes to decorating, this was my first time using sugar paper. It was much harder to work with than I anticipated; however, I think it turned out pretty well.

Penny Lane

Connecting all this together was Penny Lane. Using poster tack to keep the pennies in place, I constructed a roadway of pennies. Because I am a little bit OCD, I made sure all of the pennies were facing up and in the same direction. It took a while to do but it is one of my favorite things I did.

Photo Backdrop

My brother recreated the cover for Help! as a backdrop for pictures. I originally was going to have him do Abbey Road but didn't remember the detail involved in that and waited until the night before the party to have him come over and work on it. He said he would draw the Abbey Road one if I wanted, but I took pity on him and did the Help! cover instead. I think he did a good job.

For the savory side of the meal, I served sub sandwiches and covered the table with a yellow table cloth. I even drew a frowning face on the mustard to make it mean Mr. Mustard.

For decorations, I replaced the paintings in my living room with Beatles posters and set out a photo that one of my friends took of Strawberry Fields in NYC. I put my record player out with my Abbey Road record in it. I played the White Album in the background throughout the party and "Birthday" when Kyleigh blew out her candles. It turned into one of the best moments of the party as all of the kids starting dancing gleefully.

When it was all said and done, I threw a party for 16 people for less than $100, food and all. It has been one of my favorite themes ever that I have worked on. I mark this party down as a success.