Olivia's Birthday Party

I was not only late throwing Olivia's birthday party, I'm late on posting about it too!  We had a really fun cupcake birthday party for my sweet seven year old a few Sundays ago!

My wonderful artist showing off her cupcake coloring which was activity #1 of the day!

We had planned to color, make cupcakes and have a jumpee (they're free here to borrow!) while the cupcakes were baking, but it was raining so Mick and I scrambled that morning at the Exchange for crafts and activities.  Our Exchange is very small and not a place you would think of when you hear the term "create-a-party," but we were very lucky!  I don't have a picture of the kids doing Twister Hopscotch, but that was Activity #2.

Then we made our cupcakes!

I love first graders!  :)  We just made it from a box, but they were all so enthusiastic and appreciative of the whole party.  We put a surprise Hershey's kiss inside our cupcakes!  ☺

Then they went into our Harry Potter room (playroom under the stairs) and played for a bit and then we called them back in for Activity #3.  Making candy necklaces!

Mick is such a good Daddy and has all of the girl stuff DOWN!  

As you can see...it took a LOT of concentration!

Claire was so pleased to be right in the middle of the celebration!

Then we frosted and decorated our cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday!  My Birthday (Party) girl!

I got the idea of the decorations from Mick's cousin Tisha.  She told me the name of the crafter on Etsy that did her daughter Cadyn's first birthday party decorations and I thought I was ordering from her, but somehow I ended up brainstorming and ordering from a different crafter!  I was very pleased with her quality though!  ☺

Then we released the kids for more play and after a bit we called them down for some serious PlayDoh cupcake making!

Again, the enthusiasm and positiveness blew me away! 

So when they left a play doh holocaust, as Mick called it, who could complain?

This actually brings to mind one of my favorite stories!  We were living in California, with just Audrey, she was probably about 3 at the time.  I was on the phone with my best friend from college, Queen Stefanie, and Audrey is playing play doh.  Stefanie hears me say "No!  Don't do that!  Don't mix them!" or something like that and she says, "Oh....you're "one of those.'"  Well, nobody wants to be "one of those" of anything and I asked her to explain.  She said that she understood.  Those perfectly separated play dohs right out of the jar are so beautiful and she cringes a bit too...especially when they're brand new, but she realized when watching the kids that THEY didn't mind that it got all gobbed together.  So she lets it just go.  And since I have a bit of laissez faire parenting style anyway...I adopted the Queen Stefanie method of play doh mothering!

Complete with a Hersey's kiss label.  ☺

All in all it was a super fun party and I thank Olivia for letting me delay it a few weeks longer than she wanted to a day that worked the best for Daddy and me.  We got to celebrate your birthday a little longer!  Love you honey!!!!

This is her play doh cupcake with a surprise Hershey's kiss!  ☺