March 20, 2016

SPRING FLING PARTY.

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Photos by Ashley McFarlane

We are all hoping for warmer weather this time of year. We are hoping for pastel colors to brighten up the dreary colors outside, fresh flowers, playing outside, painting our nails, etc. While mother nature often times tries to trick us, I wanted to put together a girls night Spring Fling party to brighten up those dreary days that still sometimes like to surprise us when we are least expecting them. I wanted my party to reflect spring, women, empowerment, pampering, and fun. As women we often say yes to too much, so I wanted to have my friends over to give them a night to put everything else aside, pamper themselves, leave uplifted, and to have some treats and games. 

I put together this party pretty quick so just know that it isn’t something that you will need to spend hours on end planning, because let’s be honest, who really has time for that as a busy woman? I ran over to Walmart to pick everything up the necessities, a few games (of course our families absolute favorites) Jenga game, Twister game, and The Game of Life game. I also knew I needed the perfect treats to make every party perfect so I grabbed 38 oz. XL SUP M&M’s® Peanut Butter, 42 0z. XL SUP M&M’s® Milk Chocolate, 42 oz. XL SUP M&M’s® Peanut.

I wanted to make some of the M&M’s® into a treat so I also grabbed some white chocolate chips, pretzels, and some rice square cereal. (Full recipe listed in a printable at the bottom of the post) This recipe is a favorite of mine because of how sweet and salty it is, but also so quick and simple to throw together. All you do is grab 4 cups of your rice square cereal and place it in a bowl. In another microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate stirring every 30 seconds until it is smooth. Mix the white chocolate in with your rice square cereal and gently mix until it is all coated. Crumble up pretzels and put your favorite flavor of M&M’s® in and gently mix one more time. Now spread it out on a baking sheet for the chocolate to harden. Once it is hardened, enjoy! Simple right? 

I love how light and fresh all the decor came together. Everything from the perfect hanging flowers to the fun games and milk glasses. I tried to stick with a more pastel and white color scheme to really pull in spring and the airy feeling that we all long for waiting for spring weather to get here. 

The hanging flowers are so fun and easy to make. You will just need tissue paper in however many colors you would like your flowers to be. Lay your tissue paper out and you will want it to be 5 pieces stacked of your base color. Cut to scallop your edges on both sides (the long sides). After you cut them, lay out your center colors. Cut the tissue paper in half. Fray the long edges of both of your center colors. Lay the center colors on top of your base color and accordion fold them long ways. Your folds should be about an inch and a half wide. Place wire around the center and then fluff! Ta-Da! All finished! Use some fishing line to hang them if you choose.

I did small bowls for all of my friends to put their white chocolate crunch and their favorite flavor of M&M’s® in, and then did milk glasses with raspberry lemonade and pink paper straws to pull in those pastel colors again. Plus, what is more spring like than fresh fruit lemonade?? 

I picked up my favorite childhood games for us to play so that we could leave everything else behind for a little bit and just have fun. It was so fun to see everyone just letting go of their every day life to bring back those childhood memories of playing games. It was so fun to hear everyones favorite memories of playing the games too. I always hoped that I would get twins in playing The Game of Life game, another friend told stories of how her and her brother would play twister and it would always end up in them wrestling at the end. Those memories coming out from everyone and everyone telling their stories is exactly what I hoped for. 

I feel like the floral garland in the front really pulled the whole table together with the hanging flowers and portrayed spring. It brought a freshness in with pops of color that was absolutely perfect for the theme of my party. 

I had notebooks, chapstick, nail polish, and files for everyone. During one part of our night we each took our notebooks and took a minute to reflect on each other and ourselves. After a few minutes, we all went around and shared the things that we felt comfortable sharing about each other and ourselves. We as women are so uplifting and inspiring. I wanted each of my friends to walk away feeling uplifted and inspired and I couldn’t have put together anything better than letting each of my friends take a second to uplift and inspire each other. This also left us time to pamper ourselves while we listened to each other talk. It was a bonding time that I will never forget. 

I feel that everything in our little spring fling party couldn’t have been put together more perfectly. We had so much fun, reflected on our childhood memories while playing our favorite games, uplifted and inspired each other, had a little pampering, and delicious treats. There is nothing more that I could have wished for. It was a simple party put together for women to come together. It created a bigger bond between us than I could have imagined. If you have a second, I urge you to pull together your friends for a night. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but a night to play a few games, eat some treats, and uplift and inspire each other will be so good for your soul and absolutely make your heart burst. You can find other fun party ideas here. 

PS you can find the M&M’s® and the Hasbro games at your local Walmart!