Let them EAT cake!

So i just realized i hadn't posted a blog about the birthday party last weekend. It went off surprisingly well, i couldn't have been more pleased, i was living on that high for a few days.

For starters many of the people who answered "maybe" to their RSVP ended up showing up which was exciting to get to see people we weren't even expecting! So fun! We had the party at the church and Kim and i got there early to set up, which was good because there was a lot of setting up to do. Kim set up the giant game board for the kids game, and I set up the main party room. There was a long short table and little chairs for the kids, and several big tables and LOTS of big chairs for adults. I think most of our parties will be at the church from now on, so much room, and even a kitchen and everything! We had the building to ourselves so we really spread out, becase we had the game in one giant room, the eating and presents in another big room and the "special guest performance" in yet another very large room. This worked so well i couldn't have planned it better! There was no way this much fun could have fit in our little house :) The food was good, pizza, pizza and more pizza! We had so many pizza's nobody was left hungry that's for sure! Then the kids headed off to the game room. A giant board game was set up and they were their own moving piece. As i had said before a few more people came than expected, including kids, so it got a little chaotic, but it was fun, they had to put on dress up clothes as they went so by the end each kid had a crazy outfit on and got a candy necklace for finishing. It was a pretty cheap game to play, considering i already had paper squares to make up the game board and the dress up came from our own home and the candy necklaces cost about 1.50 at target. It took up some time which was really all i needed it for because i was waiting on the "special guest" to arrive. Lainey didn't know what her birthday surprise was but i kept telling her it was something great and she would be excited. Well the surprise was a little late so we went ahead and had the kids open presents. Maggie was a little sad that it wasn't her birthday because it was both of her sister's birthdays. So we let her help open Katie's presents since she wasn't old enough to appreciate that aspect of this special day yet anyway :) That worked this year but i don't know what we'll do for her next year.

So the "special guest" arrived during the gift opening so i left to meet with her. "She" is a ballerina who performed in the Nutcracker, she is with Central West Ballet. She was willing to do this performance for free but there was no way i was going to let her so i gave her $40 because it's what i had in my pocket at the time, although after seeing how amazing she was i should have paid her $100 or more! She came in full makeup and hair and got dressed in the bathroom at the church. She wore a costume from the nutcracker and brought music to do her performance. After all the gifts were open we brought every one into the large multi purpose room where we had chairs set up in a semi circle for the adults and the kids sat in front on the carpeted floor. She came in and introduced herself to everyone. Her name is Elease Carlson, and she looked beautiful in her costume and crown. Then we started the music and she danced. It was so beautiful and Elaine was so excited she looked like she might cry! The kids loved it and most of the adults too i think. She danced the whole song in slippers instead of toe shoes because she didn't know how well they would work on the carpet. It was still awesome! So after her performance she let the kids see her toe shoes and feel the hard part at the bottom. Then she put them on and showed them how the stood on point, that is awesome to see by the way! Then we brought in the ballet bar which Lainey had gotten for her birthday from Kim. Elease showed all the kids (and a few brave adults) how to do a few things at the bar, which Elaine thought was great!

After that Elaine asked me if the ballerina was her special birthday surprise, i said yes and she told me it was the greatest surprise ever. She was smiling so much after that, it was wonderuful to see. Then we did the cakes. Elaine had a barbie ballerina cake and Katie had a small round cake with a big 1 on it. Katie's cake was actually free because apparently savemart gives out free cakes to babies turning 1. That was great so we actuallly gave her the whole cake to eat, so we could get some pictures of her making a mess of the cake. Well boy did she!! Katie picked up the whole cake and buried her face in it! She ate most of it and smashed the rest of it all over her naked little self. (well she had on a diaper so she wasn't completely nakey) We had a tarp under her although surprisingly it had maybe only one or two little pieces of frosting on it. The cake was all either eated by her or crushed into oblivion and stored in her diaper. We got lots of great pictures of her and the cake. And just to be clear this wasn't a cupcake or a tiny cake, it was a little bigger than the styrofoam plate it was on and about 3 inches tall! Quite large for a baby to completely devour the way she did.

I came prepared and gave Katie a bath in the kitchen sink after her she ate the cake. She loves baths and thought it was great to splash water all over the counter in the kitchen! what fun. The party started to wind down at this point and the clean up began. All in all this was a blast from start to finish. I think everyone involved had fun, parents and kids alike. This one will hopefully be one Elaine remembers for years to come. I don't know how we'll ever top this, but maybe someday!