Ella's Birthday Party (4.15.18)

Ella's birthday is in December. We like to do half birthday parties for her to avoid the Christmas rush. But she didn't know her preschool friends in June 2017 so missed a party. Then we were moving so we'd miss a party. So we awkwardly did a party when she was 4 and almost 1/3. So weird. Most people didn't know her actual birthday so it was like she was turning 4.  We decided to have it at a place that one of her friends had a party.

Ella had a lot of fun. We had it just days before moving so she didn't get to play with everything. 

We invited the entire preschool class (18 kids) and had 12 in attendance. I had wrote the invitations and it was so much more annoying than an evite. I just didn't have any of their contact information so I put invites in their cubbies. 

Ella's 5.5 Birthday Party (6.22.19)

For the past year Ella talked about how she wanted to have her party at Pump It Up.  But then when I finally looked it up, it was too expensive and I didn't want to do it. So we did it at Twister Gymnastics.  It's a different gymnastics place than she goes to so I thought it would be nice for some variety.    The party packages are 2 hours long. 1 hour for playing on the equipment and 1 hour  in the party room for food and cake. Most places have it like this with an hour in a room. I always feel that is too long. I also feel 1 hour playing is not long enough but that's pretty standard.


Ella had so much fun with her friends. Someone held Liam for me for a bit so I was able to take pictures and just talk with Ella and Miles as they went through it all.  Miles loved it too.   I was a little crazy at the end and almost forgot the goodie bags.  I did spend time the night before the party making Ella's picture boards and then I totally forgot to get them out of my bag.

 I have about 80 group pictures and it's hard to even figure out which one is the best. Someone is always hidden or not looking.

Timmy was so excited to give Ella her gift. He got her a fancy tooth brush. 

Here are the photo boards I forgot to get out.

Ella's Half Birthday Party (7.1.18)

Ella woke up bright and early excited for her party even though her party didn't start until 5 PM.  I think she was so excited about the party that she didn't sleep well. She was cranky most of the day.

I set up decorations at the party. Then I went back home to get the family and the food.

We were later than I wanted to be. We got there at 4:55 for a 5 PM start time. It stressed me out.  Two of Ella's friends were there. One she called by the wrong name. She got so overwhelmed she cried and Dave had to take her away and talk to her and calm her down.  As more people showed up and gave her her presents she would get overwhelmed and hide behind me or cry.  She didn't want to eat. She sat on my lap.

She talked to some friends and played.  A bunch of kids played in the grass running back and forth and she was having fun. I did notice she played more with her preschool friends that she sees everyday than with her friends from the mom groups that she hasn't seen as much or even at all since we've been back.

Ella wanted to open presents before cake. She started doing that. but then all the kids were just standing around so I suggested cake at the same time. We tried to do that but that meant I didn't get to see who each gift was from. It was very stressful for me. Dave cut the cake and I handed it out. Ella played with her presents.

We had Ella stop opening the presents to sing to her and cut the cake and she ran away crying.

Once that was done and she was back to presents she had fun. Then we also got out the balls and the rockets we had for everyone. The kids had fun playing. They were filthy by the end.  We didn't give out the little necklaces and hair clips that we got. We totally forgot.

I made a quick trip home at 7:30 to get the food in the refrigerator. Then we got home for real at 8:30.

It was windy when I set up so I only used the helium tank for 4 balloons. I also taped a few other balloons up but not many. Ella had fun giving away the balloons but she also gave away my balloon weights :(