We had Katie’s big 5th birthday party this weekend. She’d only been counting down the days to her birthday since Dec 1. She asked how many days until her Christmas, then how many until her birthday. I guess that’s one way to teach her math.
We decided to have a princess theme, so all the attendees came donned in their best princess outfit. Katie invited her friends from her senior preschool class over – Thea, Josie and Hannah plus her neighbor friend Tessa. It didn’t seem like a lot of girls when I went to pick them up, but they must’ve multiplied when they got to our house. We asked the girls what they wanted to do first, so they decided they should open presents right out of the chute. Katie got a couple dolls, a couple games and some makeup (err!). I spent the next hour unwrapping these presents and getting all of the doll pieces out while they took a tour of the house and settled on jumping in our Jump-o-lene in the basement. That kept them busy for a few minutes, but then they were back up for cake. Katie insisted on a white cake mix with rainbow sprinkles, with pink frosting and blue and purple writing because her favorite colors and pink, blue and purple. Becky and Katie made a really good cake, and the girls devoured it.
The girls tried to entertain themselves for a while and pretty soon they were bored so it was time for activities. We tried to get them to color, but that was a little too boring for a party, so we resorted to doing a play. This is where I give each girl a line in a princess like story, then throw a stuffed animal at them as they scream and run around. Katie’s actually not that into it, but her friends thought it was a hoot. They played a little freeze tag and some hide and seek before Becky got them to settle down with a "put colored sand in a small container that can be a necklace" activity. That kept them hopping for a while just about up until dinner. We had Mac and Cheese (of course) and the girls made quick work of that. After supper they did some more jumping in the Jump-o-lene off of the table (like 3 1/2 feet up) until someone got hurt, which is how it always ends. We tried some Duck, Duck, Gray Duck but that didn’t work too well, so it left Becky and me staring at the clock trying to think of how we can entertain them for another 20 minutes. We somehow survived and had them all home by 7 – happy and healthy.
Katie had a lot of fun, and I’m sure she’ll talk about it with her friends for the next few times they get together. I put a few pictures of the big day in the latest photo album.
Eric's space 