addie's party

addie's party was a hot mess.

i really like the every other year party idea, but i seem to be a little bit of a sucka. frankie really wanted a birthday party. she had at least 5 birthday party themes picked before we'd even talked about it. and i do love to celebrate, so we had a party. so of course addie wanted a party too. i tried to dissuade her. i tried to talk her into a simple movie with friends, but no dice. she wanted a repeat of her fun bouncey house party from last year.

our may and june were cray-cray and i really wanted to do her party before we went to the dr. so we set it for the first day of summer break from school. as soon as i sent out the evite, i thought, 'hmmm, maybe i should check the weather.' and sure enough, rain and thunderstorms were predicted for every day the week of the party. and it did rain every day. by thursday the bouncey house guy emailed me that the ground was too wet, so that even if it didn't rain on friday, (which it was supposed to) the ground was too saturated to safely set up a bouncey house. indoor party planning for me!

i googled indoor party games and addie and i came up with musical chairs, bingo, and addie's choice - bobbing for apples. we were also going to have the kids make their own pizza, plus free playtime in the basement, so i figured we'd be good.

the day of her party was a work day for matt, which i didn't think would be a huge deal because it was supposed to be an outside party. we worked and worked and worked, as we do before parties. and we still weren't prepared! thankfully we have awesome friends that step up and help out! it was craziness!

musical shapes (who has 20 kiddie chairs?) in the basement was fun. i had gotten ring pops for prizes, but then right before the game started i realized that the kids would be getting prizes for getting out of the game, and then they would probably get out of the game on purpose, which just doesn't work. so then i rescinded my promise of prizes until right before they went home. oopsie. :)

we went around the circle doing different activities - walking, running, crawling, walking backwards, jumping, etc.

the biggest problem of the party were the dumb pizzas. because i was so busy, i didn't read the directions for the pizza dough. because if i had read the directions, i would have prebaked them all and had them ready. alas, i was busy cutting weird shaped individual pizza's (remember my motto lately - #goodenough) and baking them for the first half hour of the party. not good. again, thankfully the friends stepped in and helped. christian also helped in his very teenagerish way.

bobbing for apples was fun. most of the kids had never done it. addie had read about it in our trick or treat, marley book, so she was thrilled. it wasn't easy for the 5-6 year old crowd, but they quickly discovered that it's not too bad if you bite the stem, so that's what they all did.

silly birthday girl. :)

every kid that wanted a turn to bob, got a turn to bob. even cute abby with no front teeth got to bob with her hands. :) miss frankie took one look and decided bobbing for apples was not for her.

cupcake time! i love kid faces when they are the center of attention and when they feel special.

present time!

her friends are so thoughtful! i am always impressed when people give such special gifts.

she got all of her favorites - princesses, books, lego's, and tons and tons of art stuff.

girlfriend has been in heaven!

 

the pizzas turned out ok in the end. it was just craziness getting them all in and out of the oven, figuring out whose was whose, etc. craziness.

all worth it in the end. addie loved her second special day. she had a fabulous time with her fabulous friends. and hopefully they had a fun time too. :)

in other party news, i have been trying to let go a little bit, so i let addie and frankie decorate the front banisters. they did a good job, right?

 

another party done! and now i'm birthday free until january. it's nice having the last family birthday of the year. :)