Birthday party pics

A couple weeks ago we had a birthday party for Parker.  This was our first 'at home' party for her....in the past, we've always invited her whole class and had it somewhere like a bounce house.  Luckily this year she was into the idea of just a few close friends and doing things at home.  Since she has a summer birthday, it makes it easy to just invite a few girls and not everyone without the word getting out that someone was excluded.

When the girls arrived I had some pizza dough rolled out, and they all gathered around and make their own pizza. 

 While we were waiting for the pizza to cook, I did a quicky face painting job on them (they could choose a heart or a star) and then they ran around a bit and we did silly pictures. 

 After pizza and watermelon and fizzy lemonaide, they colored their aprons (sort of backwards....it would have made more sense to color aprons first and then wear them to make pizzas, but time didn't permit.  I drew everyone's name and a cupcake on their apron with a washable marker and then they used permanent fabric markers to trace over the parts of my design they wanted to keep, and then colored them in.  The fabric markers and the aprons were folded up at the end and put in their goody bag. 

 

Parker hasn't finished hers yet....I drew a cake on hers instead of a cupcake.

 After that we played charades which they enjoyed.  Funny note: Parker has always called charades "smithereens" because she can never remember the right name.  

Then it was cake time.  Parker requested a homemade cake like I did for Bob's birthday.  It's chocolate devil's food (mix) with dark chocolate ganache (scratch) icing.  Next time I might do more kid friendly flavors, but everyone managed to eat theirs.  Everything goes down easily with Blue Bell ice cream (Vanilla bean, per Parker's specs).  

After that she opened her gifts and the parents started to arrive to pick everyone up.  I think everyone had a good time, and Parker was thrilled with it. It wasn't really a ton of work, and Bob was a lot of help which made it pretty non-stressful.   I'd surely do it again if we kept the guest list this small. 

Happy Fake Birthday

At Parker's school everyone brings cupcakes or cookies for the class on their birthday.  I'm pretty sure there are district rules about serving everyone sweets, but don't worry about that part.  Since Parker has a summer birthday, we just pick a day at the end of the year and announce that it will be our cupcake day.  Last year I bought cupcakes and that was fine, but this year I decided to make them myself.  Believe it or not, I've never made cupcakes (not counting as a kid).  Luckily, Parker wanted a certain mix from the store that had colored sprinkles in it ("confetti") so I didn't have to do them from scratch.  I hear that the box and from scratch taste about the same anyway.

Parker wanted to help.  She poured the batter with me hovering over her and dictating her every more.  "That's enough in that one!  Little more in here.  That's enough!"

 

Next was icing.  They looked really pretty like this - light blue frosting with some sugar sprinkled on for a little sparkle.  But we couldn't stop there.  Parker announced that her theme was going to be tie dye.  I don't know where she gets this theme business.....her Gigi I guess....but she's big on wanting to know what the theme of all events will be. 
Cupcake newsflash:  Wrappers are all the rage now.  We made homemade wrappers out of doilies and painted them to give them a tie dye look.  Even Bob helped.

The finished product.  Pretty cute, right?

Big artsy picture, like the food bloggers do.  I added little candy stars, which don't quite fit the theme I'm told, but added that little extra guild on the lily.

I managed to get them up to school without smushing any of them.  In Parker's class, you can dance with friends or do a solo while they sing to you.  To my surprise, Parker did a solo.  She's very comfortable with her classmates apparently.

My cupcakes got rave reviews, and several of the kids carefully slipped their wrappers of and took them home.  

I hope this didn't have too many pictures to load properly for all of you.  If so, let me know and I can break up the posts into parts for faster loading.

Birthday pics - last

Then they escorted the girls to the cake room. Notice all the fancy table decorations that I didn't have to provide? I love this place.

Parker chose a rainbow cake from Costco. An odd choice since she doesn't LIKE cake. She probably would have like a chocolate one, but she was adamant that she did NOT want a chocolate cake. Whatever. Costco has DELICIOUS cakes. Inbetween the layers is cheesecake mousse!

And finally, we sing and she blows out her candles. Right before this picture was taken, the girl on the left leaned over and strongly admonished her sister, the girl in the purple, to NOT blow out Parker's candles. She managed to refrain.

Parker was very pleased with her party. This has been a big deal, turning 5. She's been counting the days for months now, and she's thrilled to finally be 5. I don't remember all the fuss about the number last year at 4, but I do at 3. I guess it's an every-other year thing. Good thing, because next year's party is going to be considerably more low key. I hope.

Birthday pics, Part1

We had a super busy week again last week. I'm trying to get caught up on posting the birthday pictures. Phase one of her birthday started Tuesday night. We took Parker and her friend out for dinner and icecream. (PF Changs for Honey Seared Chicken, and then to Pacuigo for gelato if you want to be specific). After that we enjoyed the lawn area....the girls raced around and climbed on the sculptures and rocks.

Phase 2 was on her actual birthday - Bob came home from work early and brought her a cupcake. We sang and she blew out her candles. She actually ate part of her cupcake!

Then we opened some presents. We got her 2 dress-up pettiskirts and she was thrilled. They are very thrilling to wear, very bouncy and flouncy.

More pictures coming....stay tuned.

Happy Birthday!

Last weekend was Parker's birthday party - she is very happy to finally be 4 like her friends. To count down the days until her big day, we made paper chain - one link for each day - and tore one off each night. I had Bob take a picture of it.....but forgot to ask him to make her bed or brush her hair first.


For her party venue, she chose a bounce house place, Pump It Up Jr, which has smaller stuff for younger kids. She's been to a couple other parties here, and enjoyed it I guess, so that is what she chose. She really had a ball, and all her friends had a great time too.

Leading the pack.....

Group picture....she had a good turnout.

This is the big chair she sat in to sing Happy Birthday. She was worn out at this point, and got stage fright when it was time to blow out the candles, so I had to do it. She refused.

We opened gifts at home...a new Barbie nightgown, and some lipgloss w/ a clutch purse carrying case were among her gifts.


After gift opening, we went out for a family dinner. Here's the clutch purse in action:

More Party pics

Happy Birthday Parker!

Parker is 3 today! We had a little party for her yesterday and she had a wonderful day being the birthday girl. More party pics later.