One Birthday, Two Parties! Kayli Turns 5!

What better way to celebrate a milestone birthday, like turning 5, than to have two parties?!!! This school year, Kayli has been invited by some of her daycare/preschool friends to their birthday parties, so I thought it would be pretty exciting for Kayli to have her own "girlfriends from preschool" birthday party! Then, we would follow up, the next day, with our traditional large family gathering, and finally on Sunday, spend a quiet day doing "stuff" that Kayli loves to do... gathering up her purses and bags and stuffing them with her treasures, reading her books, playing with her toys, watching her favorite DVDs and acting them all out, snuggling with me on the couch, fighting to stay awake until she just couldn't help but fall asleep in my lap, then waking up and requesting her favorite gourmet dinner, Mac 'N Cheese. Then, later, we put on our Wii F*it games and she laughs at me attempting to "catch hoola hoops on my head" or not "ride a bike into the water" or attempt a Yoga pose that's way too hard! Then, we were both ready for an early bedtime after such a crazy, whirlwind weekend. Now, without further ado... I present to you...Birthday Party # 1: Friday night, local poolside hotel room, theme is Little Mermaid/ Under the Sea, pool party. Eight little girls are taken by surprise, when "the real" Ariel walks through the doors to the pool!!! Kayli reacts like the character whose eyes pop out, and jaw drops down, then she falls to the floor "in shock"! (No I did not get this on video,it all happened so fast!) Then, back on her feet, she motions for me to come closer as she cups her hand and loudly "whispers" "Mom, why did Ariel come to my birthday?" She is still in disbelief. Ariel came in and helped with presents, cake, and posed for pictures with each little girl. Then, with everyone ready to swim, I asked the girls if they thought it would be fun to turn Ariel into a human so she could stay and swim with us. Unanimously we decided to use the magic wand, while saying the special magic words, that I just happened to know, and Ariel disappeared into the room for a few minutes, and returned with human legs, ready to swim! Everyon kept telling her how much they loved her, and that she was their favorite princess EVER! Before leaving, Ariel gave each little girl a bright purple plastic "dinglehopper/fork" to have as their very own keepsake. I overheard two little girls talking, one said to the other "Did Ariel just give us a REAL dinglehopper?" Other girl yells to Ariel "Ariel, is this a REAL dinglehopper?" "Why of course" is the reply, and the two little girls turn to each other and nod their heads in solid confirmation of the information they were just given! The next morning, Kayli was aghast when she discovered that Ariel had left behind her dress/her tail! Birthday #2 The Princess Party! Number of family members that were able to attend: 14. Kayli's favorite color, pink was used in this party's decor, along with some sort of representation for all the princesses she loves. I got a cake at the grocery store, and used my creative license to use Kayli's plastic princess nightlight as a cake topper! The magic wands with pink ribbons were candy coated marshmallows covered with sprinkles, which Kayli and I made earlier in the week. Kayli was thrilled to have a special pink velour party dress that said "Birthday Princess" on the front. (That was a great consignment find!)She not only wore that dress to this party, but also wore it to school on Friday, wanted to sleep in it Thursday night (I nixed that idea) and then she wore it again on Sunday! I would say we got some great use out of this special dress! (Now as a special thanks to my friend Linsey for being my Friday night party photographer, I will give her this party dress for Lily to grow into!)














Kayli got a new "computer room ensemble" for her dollhouse. She LOVED that it came with a tiny portable laptop that she could keep in one of her tiny purses and then pull it out and pretend to type on the tiny keyboard!!!




Kayli starts to "wind down" with a bedtime book...
She kicks back and mentally relives the highlights of the night, occasionally laughing out loud at something that struck her as funny again, and is just as funny the second time around!
She's sooooo ready for sleep...