Halie's 8th Birthday - Lisa Frank Fun!

 A few months before Halie's birthday we found Lisa Frank party supplies on clearance at our local Dollar General and she decided that's the theme she wanted for her 8th birthday.  We found some plates, napkins, invitations, and a banner marked down.  Later on we found a couple more banners at the thrift store for 25¢ each.  We even found favors and prizes on after Easter clearance that were bright and colorful as well.  She had fun picking out the rest of her party supplies from the party store.

She also decided she wanted to have a water party since August is SO very hot down here.  We prayed every day that the rain would hold off until after the party and it did, we had beautiful sunny weather and were able to do everything outside.  (Mama didn't want no soppin' wet kiddos traipsing through the house.)  We set up tables on the deck for food, drinks, and gifts, and set up chairs in the shade of our big tree for the adults.

I didn't realize until later that my camera was on the wrong setting and some of the pictures got washed out.  : (  

She had so much fun finding colorful/rainbow themed items to use.  This is the first year that she has really had a desire to have an input on her party, other than choosing a theme and it was fun working together to plan it.

Everything looked so colorful and festive.

We found these little favor bags in the after Easter clearance stuff and they fit in with the theme perfectly.

We filled up one of those snap-set pools for the kids to play in, and also put a sprinkler under the trampoline which was a lot of fun for them.  There were also water guns and tubes of bubbles to blow.

We played a couple of games.  For one of them we used the little toy basketball hoop and the kids each got a turn to see how many water balloons they could throw through the hoop in 30 seconds without them breaking first.

Another game was called Drip, Drip, Dunk.  It was the same idea as Duck, Duck, Goose, but we used a large cup that we had poked a hole in and the kids took turns going around the circle dripping water on each child and then "dunking" one of them by dumping the whole cup of  water on their head.

The last game was Hot Potato, but with water balloons.  :)

After some play time, and games, we ate pizza for lunch, they played a bit more and then it was time for presents.

An air soft pistol with plastic BB's from Daddy.  :D

Fun stuff from cousin Emma.

Lots of goodies from Nana and Papaw.

Dollhouse furniture from Meemaw and Papaw.

One of the things on her wish list was new rain boots and I found these cute horse ones that have her two favorite colors, pink and aqua!

The day before the party my two little helpers assisted with the birthday cake making.

She wanted the inside to be rainbow colors so we bought a neon food coloring set and two cake mixes. She also picked out a hot pink frosting from the store that she wanted me to use.

We layered the multi-colored batter into the pans and hoped for the best.

The finished product!

We used purple between the layers and then I piped in a decorative edge around the bottom and also around the topper.  We found the colorful candy flowers at Walmart and used those to help bring in some more of the rainbow colors of Lisa Frank.

Even a Lisa Frank unicorn for the topper!  (More on that story in a minute.)

This is how the inside of the cake turned out and Halie thought it was awesome.  :)

Now, back to the topper story.  The topper I originally ordered ended up being way too small, more like a cupcake topper size, and I wasn't sure what we were going to do.  But then one day in the thrift store we found this dirty little, ugly unicorn for 50¢.  I decided for that cheap I'd experiment with painting it to look like the Lisa Frank unicorn and we'd use it as a topper instead.  I used craft paints I already had and then coated the whole thing with a clear glossy sealer.

Halie was SO in love with it and even more excited that she gets to keep it even after the party.  :)

She invited all girls to her water party, but one girl has a brother Burl's age and so we told him he was welcome to come too so that Burl would have a male presence to help him fend off the girly-ness of the day.  :)

She had so much fun and we were so thankful for the beautiful weather.

A fun day indeed!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Halie's 3rd birthday week started off with taking cupcakes to share with her friends at the library story time. Instead of the usual cupcakes, we made Rice Krispie Treat cupcakes. I had seen the idea in a magazine and thought they were really cute. We used the Cupcake Pebbles cereal that has little sparklies in it and topped it with pink frosting and sprinkles.

The kids really seemed to like them, although that doesn't really show up in this not-so-great picture, lol!

Mmmmmmm!!!

On her actual birthday, which was Thursday, she requested pancakes and eggs. We made chocolate chip and birthday sprinkle pancakes.

It was her day so I didnt' do much housework, I just let her choose what she wanted to do and I tagged along. : ) She watched a video, went outside and played with Mimi and played on her slide and swing, we played games and read books. A fun day!

For dinner, we took her into town to McDonald's (or as she calls it Old MacDonald's).

Before we got there we stopped at Winn-Dixie and let her go in and pick out a birthday balloon.

She got a happy meal and when she was done eating she ran off to the playground. She had been SO excited about that part all day long!

After some play time we let her open her gift. We kept it small and just got her two little things since she had an actual birthday party coming up and also, we'll be getting her a new bed and bedding set for her room soon. She LOVES to sing so I thought this microphone would be perfect.

We ended the evening with an ice cream cone! Her daddy helped her out a little, but she ate most of that all by herself!

Saturday of that week we had her actual birthday party. She really loves the pool and August in Florida is just too hot to do much else, so we had a pool party. My goal was to keep it low key since I'm 8.5 months pregnant, but still make it cute, colorful, and fun. We used Great Grandma Staffa's pool and kept it really small with just a few family members.

I decorated with a pool party theme and used lots of bright colors that coordinated around beach balls. The banners were from the dollar store and I also got several punch balloons from the dollar store and clusterd them together as part of the decorations. I thought it turned out kinda cute. When the party was over, the balloons doubled as a party favor the kids could take home with them.

I bought bright colored, big, lollipops and put them in a bucket of sand and surrounded that with oversized sunglasses as the centerpiece. Again, both of those items doubled as party favors for the kids.

I found this cute pool party set online.

Gift table.

To keep everyone comfortable, we arranged it so that the ladies and kids used the pool first, then all the men came and joined us for a pizza lunch, cupcakes, and gift opening. After that was all completed, the mommies took the kids home for naps and the daddies and grandpas stayed and swam for awhile. It worked out good that way.

Emma and Halie, FINALLY getting brave and using the floaties all by themselves!

She LOVES to jump in!

Isaiah, Emma, Halie, and Josiah

Instead of spending extra money on ordering a cake done by someone else, I decided to do the cupcakes myself this year. The little sun toppers were actually rings and also doubled as party favors. : )

I saw the idea for these flip flop cookies on a "beach towel" in a magazine. I was only planning on doing the cupcakes just to keep things simplified, but these were just too cute to pass up!

Cousins having fun together.

Birthday girl!!!

I have always chosen the theme for her parties, but I think next year she'll be ready to choose for herself! : )