My oldest baby has officially turned 7! Man, oh man, birthdays are exciting at this age. So how could we NOT go all out for our little sweetheart! The kids birthdays are one of the highlights of our year and we like to create lots of family memories! This year's celebrating started last Sunday with a family party. Jill, Lynn, and Paige's family's, as well as the new Utahn's, Mom and Dad, came over last Sunday to celebrate Mason, Emily and Dan's birthdays. Emily requested green cupcakes, so I decided to do a practice run of her friend party cupcakes. (My camera was MIA that day, so I'm relying on pictures from others...please send me any pictures you took that day!)
The next celebration day was Thursday. Her class had to celebrate her birthday a day early since Friday was a holiday. I got off easy on that one because she wanted to bring fruit roll ups! Then on Friday, she had her day ALL planned out. In her own words, "First, I want to wake up and run into the living room to see my streamers (oops, I think we've set a hard to break precedence!), then I want to give Daddy a big hug and kiss, then if mommy's awake :), I'll give her a big hug and kiss..." The rest of her day included visiting daddy's work, going to Toys R Us, going to Chuck E. Cheese, and visiting Grandma and Grandpa! We also took her out to Burger King and got these cute Pinkalicious dolls. I was happy to fulfill her wish for the perfect day...she's not too hard to please...yet! Steve got her the cute frog stuffed animals from the Princess and the frog movie. I gave her some books and a foam mailbox to decorate (she LOVES writing letters and delivering them). Our BIG present was tickets to Disney on Ice this next Saturday! So her birthday week continues!!!
Then Saturday was our BIG celebration day. Emily asked for a Princess and the Frog party. Unfortunately, we got started a bit late this year. I was just going to forgo the costumes this year, but then Steve comes home on Thursday with a big surprise! He'd spent his lunchhours the whole week long searching for all the pieces to a prince Naveen costume! Emily was thrilled! (Of course, then mom was left scrambling for outfits for the rest of us...) (Well, Steve DID buy a fancy Disney store Tiana costume...but I vetoed that!) Anyway, I just got a white and green dress from Emily's closet, some blue flowers from my hairclip craft bag, some thread and a needle and...headed over to grandma's house!! (Yeah for grandma's that live close!!) Grandma quickly handsewed them all together and came out with a pretty impressive Tiana dress. I made her a tiana tiara, already had gloves purchased (luckily I was on the ball with Easter dress accessories), and VOILA...a beautiful (and free) Tiana costume! Emily was thrilled! Ella picked out her red flapper dress to be Charlotte...easy peasy! And then there was me. Emily really wanted me to be Mama Odie, so how could I NOT! I grabbed some white and yellow felt, some plastic butter tub lids AND...headed to grandma's! (Again...yeah!) And we did a pretty good job for a one-night costume! Unfortunately, I did NOT have time to find a Eden a green sweatsuit or something...although she would have made a darling frog!
The party decorating was pretty easy this year. I just hung green streamers from the ceiling to look like we were in a swamp. We also hung up the princess and the frog posters we got at the Disney store by preordering the movie. On the front door we hung signs on frog posters, "Happy Birthday Emily!", "Welcome to the Bayou!", and "Watch out for Crocodiles." We ended up with about 15 people at her party. (Phew...I had 16 of most things and was expecting more kids!!) We started out coloring and making frog foam visors. Luckily mom came to help and she did the frog visors, took care of Eden and dished out the ice cream! It made for a much smoother party. After the coloring and visors, we were still waiting for somc guests to arrive, but we moved on to lilly pad cake walk game. The lilly pads and the characters from the movie on them. They got to pick a candy for their frog favor cups. (Get rid of all our leftover Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's candy? YES!) Then the kids found little frogs hiding all over the room and got to flip them onto the lilly pads on a blanket blanket. If they landed on the lilly pad, they got one or two candies. Next we played pin the Kiss on the frog! Then all the little froggies sang a frog version of "Five little monkeys swinging in the tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, Can't catch me" Steve was the crocodile and they all LOVED running away from him! Then I put a whole bunch of paper flies on the blanket pond and gave them a sticky hand (tongue) and let them catch the flies. Then they glued those on a baby food jar to make a bug jar. Then we played Hot Frog (with Jazz music!) and the person that was holding the frog when the music stopped got a plastic frog to put in their jar! Emily's favorite part was next...presents! She was very gracious and loved all her gifts. She especially loved her Zhu Zhu pet, Tiana barbie, Tinkerbell toys, Curious George 2 movie, and Thumbellina movie. Then all the kids got to sing to Emily, eat a frog cupcake and ice cream and head home!! Luckily we ended about right on time. The only problem was the younger kids hadn't kept very good track of all their loot and we had to hunt for some. We were exhausted, but glad we had another successful party!
The next celebration day was Thursday. Her class had to celebrate her birthday a day early since Friday was a holiday. I got off easy on that one because she wanted to bring fruit roll ups! Then on Friday, she had her day ALL planned out. In her own words, "First, I want to wake up and run into the living room to see my streamers (oops, I think we've set a hard to break precedence!), then I want to give Daddy a big hug and kiss, then if mommy's awake :), I'll give her a big hug and kiss..." The rest of her day included visiting daddy's work, going to Toys R Us, going to Chuck E. Cheese, and visiting Grandma and Grandpa! We also took her out to Burger King and got these cute Pinkalicious dolls. I was happy to fulfill her wish for the perfect day...she's not too hard to please...yet! Steve got her the cute frog stuffed animals from the Princess and the frog movie. I gave her some books and a foam mailbox to decorate (she LOVES writing letters and delivering them). Our BIG present was tickets to Disney on Ice this next Saturday! So her birthday week continues!!!
Then Saturday was our BIG celebration day. Emily asked for a Princess and the Frog party. Unfortunately, we got started a bit late this year. I was just going to forgo the costumes this year, but then Steve comes home on Thursday with a big surprise! He'd spent his lunchhours the whole week long searching for all the pieces to a prince Naveen costume! Emily was thrilled! (Of course, then mom was left scrambling for outfits for the rest of us...) (Well, Steve DID buy a fancy Disney store Tiana costume...but I vetoed that!) Anyway, I just got a white and green dress from Emily's closet, some blue flowers from my hairclip craft bag, some thread and a needle and...headed over to grandma's house!! (Yeah for grandma's that live close!!) Grandma quickly handsewed them all together and came out with a pretty impressive Tiana dress. I made her a tiana tiara, already had gloves purchased (luckily I was on the ball with Easter dress accessories), and VOILA...a beautiful (and free) Tiana costume! Emily was thrilled! Ella picked out her red flapper dress to be Charlotte...easy peasy! And then there was me. Emily really wanted me to be Mama Odie, so how could I NOT! I grabbed some white and yellow felt, some plastic butter tub lids AND...headed to grandma's! (Again...yeah!) And we did a pretty good job for a one-night costume! Unfortunately, I did NOT have time to find a Eden a green sweatsuit or something...although she would have made a darling frog!
The party decorating was pretty easy this year. I just hung green streamers from the ceiling to look like we were in a swamp. We also hung up the princess and the frog posters we got at the Disney store by preordering the movie. On the front door we hung signs on frog posters, "Happy Birthday Emily!", "Welcome to the Bayou!", and "Watch out for Crocodiles." We ended up with about 15 people at her party. (Phew...I had 16 of most things and was expecting more kids!!) We started out coloring and making frog foam visors. Luckily mom came to help and she did the frog visors, took care of Eden and dished out the ice cream! It made for a much smoother party. After the coloring and visors, we were still waiting for somc guests to arrive, but we moved on to lilly pad cake walk game. The lilly pads and the characters from the movie on them. They got to pick a candy for their frog favor cups. (Get rid of all our leftover Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's candy? YES!) Then the kids found little frogs hiding all over the room and got to flip them onto the lilly pads on a blanket blanket. If they landed on the lilly pad, they got one or two candies. Next we played pin the Kiss on the frog! Then all the little froggies sang a frog version of "Five little monkeys swinging in the tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, Can't catch me" Steve was the crocodile and they all LOVED running away from him! Then I put a whole bunch of paper flies on the blanket pond and gave them a sticky hand (tongue) and let them catch the flies. Then they glued those on a baby food jar to make a bug jar. Then we played Hot Frog (with Jazz music!) and the person that was holding the frog when the music stopped got a plastic frog to put in their jar! Emily's favorite part was next...presents! She was very gracious and loved all her gifts. She especially loved her Zhu Zhu pet, Tiana barbie, Tinkerbell toys, Curious George 2 movie, and Thumbellina movie. Then all the kids got to sing to Emily, eat a frog cupcake and ice cream and head home!! Luckily we ended about right on time. The only problem was the younger kids hadn't kept very good track of all their loot and we had to hunt for some. We were exhausted, but glad we had another successful party!
4 comments:
Just thought I'd give you a heads up. My next birthday is being celebrated at your house! Wow!! Won't it be nice someday when all they're asking for are cell phones, computers, make-up, and expensive clothes?
That party was amazing! Kim and Steve could hire out for parties. Emily was princess for the day/week/month! The children were very excited for each new activity and the time passed quickly. Steve was a great sport and a fun dad. I think he enjoyd it as much as the kids! By the way, he is also a great "putter-together" as he tackled a desk that Dad bought. It took four evenings of his time but it is a wonderful addition to the den. It is a corner desk with a hutch on top - complicated!
Back to the party - such a fun time and I am glad I was invited. Hey Dan, what is planned for you on Friday???
Great party, Kim! Natalia had a great time. It's nice of Emily to include her younger cousins!
Wow I wanta come to your house on my birthday. Great job Kim.
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