Makenlea's party.

Hey... it worked!! She caved!! So, the following is a guest blog from Rebecca, Makenlea's mom.

Hello Everyone! This is my first time ever to do a blog post so bear with me. (It isn't as easy as it seems it would be) Melanie asked me to be a guest blogger after she graciously hosted my daughter's 9th birthday party. After many months of admiring Melanie's talent of painting, I thought that it would be a fun time to have my daughter's party in her art room, with Melanie sharing her talent of painting and instruction with Makenlea and a few of her friends. As we made plans about the party, Makenlea's love for horses created the theme. So with horses in mind, Melanie picked for the girls to paint glittered horseshoes. Todd kicked off our morning with donuts. The girls enjoyed them very much, but I think Lizzie enjoyed Gabbi feeding them to her the most.

As the girls got started painting, many decisions had to be made. (i.e background color, horseshoe color, etc). Then the fun began!!! The colors of the rainbow were the many choices we had. Mo taught the girls how to mix colors on their brush to make many different shades, instead of just a solid color. (makes the painting less boring in my eyes)

My mom and 2 sisters came along to help out with transportation, not realizing we would put them to work helping kiddos paint. Thanks DaneDane, ToneTone and Memom for the help.

Backgrounds are in progress as you can see. The girls were excited to be able to create their own individual masterpiece.

This is my niece Aubrey. She is working on blending her background to a perfect shade of green/yellow.

This is the birthday girl Makenlea. Memom is helping her get those "hard to paint" edges.

This is Kaitlyn, one of Makenlea's friends. She decided to go with the dark colors for her picture. It turned out really cute in the end. She visualized something that I never would have.

We had 1 girl get sick and was unable to attend, SO DaneDane decided to not let the canvas go to waste. She decided on a beautiful mustard color for her background. Gabbi decided that she would sit in Dane Dane's lap and watch her paint.
As everyone worked on their canvases, we were able to visit, tour Mo's BAH (which is more beautiful in person than in pictures). The kids loved everything about the house. They all went home asking for spiral staircases and art rooms. Across the table, you can see Ellie had joined in on the party. She knew exactly what she wanted from the beginning. Next to Ellie is my youngest niece Abigayle. She and Ellie could be twins with their wardrobe and actions. She, like Ellie, thinks she is a "Big Girl". Once she got done painting her horseshoe, Ellie announced that she would be dancing in her room and Abigayle was very quick to join her!!
My niece Valerie, is working on her masterpiece. She is the perfectionist of the family. Everything has to be perfect!!! She was in HEAVEN in the art room!! I can see her having a room just like Mo's one day.

Miss Abi painting those edges with a little assistance from her mom.

It was just about at this time that Gabbi is admiring Dane Dane's picture.

In just a few seconds, she decided to add "The Gabbi Touch" to DaneDane's picture. It was HILARIOUS!!!

We all laughed sooo hard as she gently added her touch to the painting. She never looked up. She painted it exactly like she wanted . The entire picture ended up black with shades of all other colors on top of it. When she thought the had enough paint, she stopped painting.

This is Makenlea's painting before the horseshoe was painted and glittered.

Here we have the cookies that were made for Makenlea's party. We, as a group, enjoyed them later at Orange Leaf. I brought Ellie and Gabbi one of each design so they could have their own. Special thanks to Danyale Rushing for making these special cookies for Makenlea.

Gabbi continuing to work on her masterpiece. (I think she thought Dane Dane's was boring)

Then Gabbi decided it was cookie time. She stripped her shirt off and made herself a bib out of a napkin. The cookies were a hit with Gabbi. Gabbi's stamp of approval.

Ellie decided to go with a rainbow horseshoe. Why should she be limited to one color Right???

Lauren was Mo's assistant for the day. She helped the girls with their painting and cleaned up our mess when we left.

Makenlea, Madalyn, Avery and Kaitlyn started to add color to the horseshoes.

So guess who came over??? The famous Emma Lou. I was telling Mo that we got to meet Todd, Ellie, Gabbi, KK, and Lizzie. The only thing that would make the day complete would be if Paula stopped by. So, Mo gave her a call and she happened to be out and about. She even had Emma Lou with her!!

Ellie's rainbow horseshoe! I think it is very unique!!

Here is the group with their finished products. Mo taught them how to do the swirls over their pictures to add finishing touches to them. They were a little scared at first, but after the 1st one was done, they were all on board. From L to R: Abigayle, Aubrey, Valerie and Jenna Kate (Makenlea's 1st cousins) and Avery (Makenlea's best friend since birth.) Avery's mom and myself are kind of like Melanie and Paula BFF's!!!!!

We add Kaitlyn (a friend from school) and Makenlea with this picture. I was so excited how they all have their own touches to the paintings. They were able to decide what they wanted and be individual!!!

Just what her picture say "Smile" is exactly what she was doing. She was so excited all day long. Mo asked each of the girls to pick a word to paint on their picture. Smile fits Makenlea perfect. It is soo easy for her to put a smile on anyone's face. She has soo many other words that describe her that she could have picked, but smile fit the best for this special day.

Then we have Madalyn and Anna. Madalyn is a friend of Makenlea's from church and Anna is a friend from school

The group of girls with Melanie!!
And of course, we always have to have silly pictures. Ellie was able to join in on this picture. Gabbi was MIA with KK.

The famous "PauPau" came by to meet all of us. I was excited to finally be able to meet her in person, instead of knowing everything about her from blog land!!

Here we are!! Not thinking this picture would make the blog, we decided to act silly also. You know, we had to get the "hand on the hip Mary Allison" pose in there.

This is Valerie's final painting. Her word was perfect for her. She has soooo many dreams and I hope and pray everyday that they all come true for her.

This concludes our birthday party blog post. I know Makenlea will always remember her 9th birthday. Thanks sooooo much Melanie for doing this for her. You were able to take time out of your busy schedule to host this wonderful memory for her. It was a chance for little girls to be able to express their "creative bones" without the pressure of not making a mess. All of the girls had a BLAST!!!! I know I will never forget Makenlea telling me late that night "Mom, this was the best birthday weekend ever". I know you have 2 little girls who are lucky to have you as their mom. Thanks for a great day and a great time!!!
Rebecca