A Girls' Birthday Party That Isn't a Bounce House

Painting parties for girls in Brooklyn — an elegant, calm, at-home birthday for daughters who've outgrown the noisy party circuit. Supplies included.

Somewhere around eight or nine, girls age out of the bounce house and there's this gap. Too old for the clown, too young for a spa day, and you'd like the party to happen somewhere you can keep an eye on it.

A painting party fills that gap almost perfectly. Ten girls around your table, aprons on, quiet music if you want it, everyone working on her own canvas. It's social and calm at the same time — they talk the whole way through, but their hands are busy.

Paula picks themes that land with this age: florals, sunsets over water, names in script, whatever the birthday girl dreams up. The paintings come out genuinely pretty — the kind that get hung in bedrooms, not stuffed in a drawer.

Because it's at home, it fits the family. You set the food, the guest list, the timing. Sunday afternoon, motzei Shabbat, a vacation-week morning — Paula schedules around you.

She's a working art teacher at Magen David Yeshivah, and it shows in the pace: nobody left behind, nobody bored, and the girl who says she can't draw leaves with the painting she's proudest of.

Text 646-262-2794 or book through the site. Tell her the age and how many girls — she'll suggest a theme.