Party Time!

We did it and survived! As soon as Alyssa arrived home from school (which is half days every Friday) we let her open up her gifts from us. We figured she would be opening up a ton at the party and this way it was one less thing to bring. Finally it was PARTY-TIME!! Here we thought 22 kids would be coming and ended up with 30 counting Ryann, Kylee, and the birthday girl. RSVP is a funny thing. The purpose of putting this on an invite is to give you an idea of how many people would be there so you can have enough food, etc. The day of the party I received two more phone calls of kids coming despite the fact I asked by the 25th to RSVP. Luckily, the place was very accommodating and ordered more pizzas so their would be plenty of food. If your child ever gets invited to a party (which will happen) please call ASAP so you are not one of THOSE parents calling the day of. I know we all have hectic lives and before we know it is the day of the party, so the moment you get it in your hands make the call that same day that very moment.

We got her a much needed alarm clock that she could hook up her MP3 player and listen to music, makeup, nail stuff, lotions, and pet shops.

These are the invites that Nikki (sister-in-law) helped me make.

Pink for Girls; Blue for Boys

The party began at three with all the kids having a great time swimming and playing in the water. It had been snowing all week and was nice to go somewhere to swim where it was warm.

Ryann enjoying the water!

Dad watching and playing with Ryann. Addy was at her Nana and Paca's house sick. You can see his surgery wounds are healing up nicely.

Two of Alyssa's best friends. Jordan and Sophie. The one in the pink had to constantly pat me and tell me something. CONSTANTLY! :)

Alyssa and Elaine in the lazy river!

Kylee and her friend Lauren that came to help me with the party.

Alyssa coming out the water slide.

Around 4:20 we moved into the party room and played a few games.

The first game they played was freeze dance. This is a great game to play with a lot of kids. It also was a great way to warm them up from just getting out of the pool. For those of you not familiar with this game...You play the music, they dance, you pause the music, they freeze. Whoever is caught moving when they are to "freeze" is out.

We followed this game by the limbo...how low can you go?



Finally, I divided them up into two teams. I brought in a small plastic kiddie pool and filled it with mini beach balls that I bought from Oriental Trading. At the bottom of this pool were puzzle pieces (blue or pink). One at a time team members would grab a puzzle piece and then assemble the puzzle. I drew a huge crab on the blue and a seahorse on the pink. It was a little tricky but the blue team ended up winning. I had one more game planned but had to skip it do to time. These little beach balls were a hit especially among the boys. Right before the pizza was brought in they started dancing again and a few boys were throwing the balls at each other so Elliott decided to help them out by picking up the pool and throwing all the balls up in the air. All of the kids screamed and started throwing balls.

Next, it was time to eat Pizza. They figure out how many pizzas you need based off of how many guests so they brought in 8 large pizzas and I thought we would be bringing some home. Ha ha...boy did I underestimate how much kids can eat. We had one slice left over. The kids couldn't believe that they could have as much as they want and so they took advantage of that moment. Elliott with the help from Kylee and her friend handed out the pizza while I poured the soda. We had 8 2-liters of soda and I couldn't pour fast enough. Ahhh crazy moment! It was like feeding a bunch of vultures or hungry lions. It makes me appreciate the lunch workers in elementary schools.

The girl in the pink (Abby) would take the prize for the girls for eating the most pizza and drinking the most soda.

Following the Pizza we went strait into having cake and Ice Cream. I have the cutest pattern to make the cutest cake but decided to help keep it simple I went to a bakery for her cake. We only had one small corner worth of cake left over.

Boys being Boys

Finally it was time to open all the many presents...the big hits were the webkinz! She got 8 and every time she would open on all the kids would scream! Too funny. She opened up this huge scrapbooking kit and a boy from her class said that it was gross and then a girl added in, "Your a boy and can't appreciate the art of scrapbooking." Kids are funny. She finished opening the last gift just as parents arrived to pick their kids up. I had a bag with some candy and a few small items inside tied up with a flip flop key chain on the outside for them to take home along with one of the beach balls from the game.

The shirt she got for having her party at the aquatic center.

Party Favor Bag and Beach Ball.



All the Goods!

It was a blast and seeing Alyssa have fun with her friends is why I LOVE throwing fun birthday parties for my girls. For having so many kids I was surprised at how well-behaved they all were. When we came home Elliott gave me a foot massage...ahhhh! What a perfect way to end a great day.