We celebrated her birthday with another theme all her own: a bubble gum birthday party. For the past few years, she comes up with the idea, then trusts me to (somehow) make it happen. Here’s the story of her special day in pictures.

First I designed a simple little party invite with my favorite, easy to use program. Downloaded a copy and texted it to a few friends.

She wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Since going gluten free, my favorite mix is Bob’s Red Mill. It’s delicious every. single. time! I baked it the day before, popped it in the freezer over night, then frosted it the day of, topped it with a few bubble gum treats, and she was not disappointed.

Because food is a love language in our family, we started the day off with a rare treat - donuts! I tried this gluten free donut mix for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. The texture was light and each bite was full of flavor.

As we waited for the party guests to arrive, we set out all the bubble gum we had collected, and she and her brothers began to hypothesize about which type and/or combination will blow the biggest bubble. Do you have a guess?!

Because her birthday is so close to Christmas, I find it’s just easier to leave the tree up and turn it into a birthday tree with small balloons and birthday presents below. It just gives me a little breathing room in-between undecorating and redecorating.

The rest of the decor was fairly simple because balloons lend themselves as the perfect double for bubble gum bubbles. Right?!

We found a bubble gum pink table cloth at Target, along with coordinating napkins and plates, a banner on Amazon, then filled in the gaps with a bunch of GUM! You may have to get creative when it comes to gum shopping though. Would you believe that was the hardest part?! Definitely not a one stop shop. I shopped Target, two grocery stores, a gas station, Walgreens, and a local outdoor supply store which is known for their little candy shop. She had no idea now much time I spent hunting down gum, and was totally thrilled with the assortment.

The bubble gum blowing contest was the main event. Friends, brothers, and even Dad joined in. I think you’d be surprised at which gum(s) worked the best. I’m gonna leave that for you to figure out ;)

Her Dad is the king of treasure hunts, and crafted the girls an exceptional experience complete with folded paper clues that had to be blown up before they could be unfolded and read. I’ll post a video of that soon. You may have seen it in my Instagram stories.

At the end of the hunt was this treasure box which hid their party bags full of - - - you guessed it, GUM! And other gummy like things.

(This is Echo, our mascot. He’s a 10 week old English Labrador.)

After the treasure hunt, we had a little gift opening session, followed by a snack, and that yummy chocolate birthday cake.

Turning 10 is kind of a big deal. She reminded us that now that she’s in the double digits, she’s just like the rest of the family. Bless her heart! We traded out the typical candles for some fun sparkler numbers to mark this momentous occasion. It’s the small things that seem to bring the most joy.

So the bubble gum birthday party was everything this little girl dreamed it would be, and more. I just love to see the twinkle in her eye as she takes in each detail, planned especially for her. Each year she gets older, she promises her Dad and I that she will be our little girl forever.

No matter how old she gets, I love to make her feel like the treasure she is.

If you’d like to see how we celebrated her golden birthday, you can click here.

And if you plan a bubble gum birthday party of your own, I’d love to see it. Just tag me on Instagram @withheidijoy so we can share in your celebration.

Party On,