birthday party!

Ahhhh. I feel immense relief having survived Evelyn's birthday party! We had 12 kids here - 10 happy, screaming girls plus 2 brave little neighbor boys running through our house. It was fun. I admit I got a bit obsessive with planning out the details of this event. In part, it was nice to be able to focus on a specific something to distract me from Steven's traveling absence. But also, I really love birthdays and making my girls' celebrations extra special.

This year the theme was mermaids and under-the-sea. Lots of blues and greens.

After cleaning and decorating, the little people started arriving. We started out with mermaid tattoos and fish face painting (a HUGE thank-you to my mom and katie for their help!!!) We had 2 super bubble machines filling the sky with happiness. The kids then had a picnic pizza and pink lemonade lunch and were hysterically laughing at Evelyn's knock-knock jokes. I should maybe mention that she tells the most random of jokes that make no sense whatsoever, but apparently for 5 and 6 year olds they really
ARE funny.

After lunch the kids rotated fishing for goldfish behind a dolphin shower curtain and making necklaces with glass fish beads.

We took photos of each kid being a mermaid with the mermaid screen I made. I LOVED painting this, by the way, and think it's adorable. The plan is to include a picture of each girl along with their thank-you note later.

After that, cupcakes and the happy birthday song were in order along with present opening.

Finally, with a sugar rush energy unlike any other, the kids went crazy attacking the mermaid pinata. And then parents started showing up! We said our goodbyes to the littles with their goody bags in hand. What a fantastic 2-hour extravaganza! I think everyone had fun and I loved putting the whole thing together.