8th and 4th Birthday Party for the Girls

The girls' shared birthday party was this last Sunday.  After quite a bit of back and forth, they(mostly Paige, since Neely didn't seem too concerned about the theme) settled on a space party.  

As usual I had tons of plans, and only got to about half of it.  It ended up being more of a moon and stars party, as we never got to the planets at all.  Fine with me, and apparently them.  It was kind of between lunch and dinner, so we just had snacks and of course dessert. 

I barely even finished the dessert I did do, and there were more I wanted to have and never got to.  :(  The cupcakes we did have were supposed to be frosted with the moon phases, but I was running out of time, and got my mom and Cassie to do crescent moons for me while I finished up getting other stuff ready.

 I stayed up really late the night before, trying to finish the moon pinata, and painting some moon shirts for the kids to wear.

  Late that night before, I finally finished the pinata, and went to lift it and the rope immediately tore right out of it.  I had made Cason's Toothless pinata way too hard to break, so I mostly made this one out of posterboard, in an attempt to make it a little easier for the kids.  Apparently it wasn't strong enough to hang.  Ha!  So until it was time for the kids to break it, it just sat on the table as a decoration.

Half of our family woke up with stuffy noses, and my throat was a little sore too.  I immediately texted people, especially the ones with kids, to let them know that we were still going to have the party since we felt okay, but we would understand if they didn't want to join in.  Apparently people have figured me out, and realize our kids are not, in fact, sickly children, because most of them braved our germs and came anyway.  Haha!  I just warn people at the slightest sign of the sniffles, because I do not want to get people sick and have to feel guilty later, so I'm always playing it safe.  WAY safe.  Ha!

Half the party was in the living room watching How to Train Your Dragon 2.  Ha!  Cason played a part in getting that going, I'm sure.

 It was a pretty low-key party this time.  The girls each get to have a separate sleepover in addition to the party, with their closest friends, so we got away with not doing a bounce house or anything like that.  It was simple but fun.  I threw together some little constellation favors, and the kids seemed to enjoy the pinata, which Jess did manage to make a sort of harness for, so it could still hang.  Even though it tore so easily when I lifted it, the kids STILL each got a couple turns to hit it before it broke.  I may never master pinata building.

 Paige and Neely were showered with gifts from their loved ones, lucky girls.

They both loved everything they got, but Neely was especially fun to watch.  She was more expressive this year, as she opened them.

Then we sang and had cake and ice cream, and on to the pinata.

The girls loved their party and having their family here to celebrate with them.

Reed's 1st Birthday Party

Since Reed was turning 1 on the 1st, this was his golden birthday.  I decided to use that for his party theme.  

It turned out to be pretty hard to find gold party supplies in town.  Plenty of yellow, but no metallic gold.  I found plenty online though.  My favorite find was probably the edible gold star glitter for the cake and cupcakes.

We kept his party a little smaller, since we have so many birthdays packed into just a couple of months, and he's not big enough to make requests yet-like bowling or a bounce house.  

As usual I waited too late to clean and start decorating or anything, and ended up having to miss Cason's soccer game that morning.  :(  Of course that's the game when he decides he's a machine and scores like 9 goals.  Ha.  Veronica made some food, and Cassie came over to help me decorate while I finished getting stuff ready.  Trudi also helped me finish some food I was trying to make.  Thank goodness.

Veronica also crocheted a cute little bowtie and suspenders for the guest of honor.  

It came together well and was such a nice little party.

It was just family, and we had fun celebrating our little man.

We opened gifts.  

Like a lot of little ones, he latched onto the first thing he received and spent the next 10 minutes playing with it while the other kids opened the rest of the gifts for him.

We sang to him, and gave him his cupcake.  He wanted none of it.  He put one hand in the frosting, and we waited, and waited, and Jess gave him a little taste to get him started, and we waited....and he started looking annoyed and trying to shake the frosting off of his hand.  We finally gave up and let him out of the highchair!  I guess he prefers chocolate.

People started to head home not too long after that.  When it was down to just us and my sisters, I realized I hadn't put on Reed's favorite music during the party.  So I set it to Mr. Pitiful, his favorite Otis Redding song, and a little dancing ensued.  That will be a happy memory for me. 

Once it was just us, and for the next couple of days, he got to leisurely enjoy his giant "1" balloon and discover all the gifts he didn't realize he'd been given.  :)

I love this boy so much.  So glad he has so many people who love him.  I wish he could've realized the whole party was all for him, but I think he knows he's loved.