Katie Ray will turn 5 in just four days. Before I start to get wistful and weepy that my little baby girl is oh-so big and grown, I will focus on the fun celebration we just had. It was a whirlwind of work, but so much fun and so worthwhile!
She really wanted to invite her entire class of 28 children, so we had a big crowd! Over 30 children including siblings and a couple old friends, plus 21 adults!
The fun began in the morning when Matt brought home 24 red and turquoise balloons.
(this pic was actually taken at the end of the day… notice the 2nd bunch of balloons way back in the distance that blew away during the magic show and got caught in the trees!)
Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the cute set-up but outside I hung paper lanterns in the same colors, and we had red paper plates and utensils, turquoise napkins, blue and red paper straws, and bright blue mason jars with white flowers. After seeing the balloons and the set-up, Katie Ray declared, "This is the best day of my life!"
(yes another pic I took tonight)
Right after breakfast Katie Ray got dressed with no prompting - she picked out a vintage dress of mine and insisted on doing her own hair in a "half up" style. I am kicking myself for not taking more photos!!! This is her at the very end of the long day, so at least you can see the dress.
Katie Ray is never short on ideas, and as soon as we'd decided to have a party at home, she suggested (declared?!) a Lego theme plus a magician for entertainment. Both turned out perfectly! I borrowed a friend's lego stash (she has three grown boys - so it was about 1 trillion pieces of lego!!) and put them out on a 6 foot table on one side of the patio, and Katie Ray's huge duplo collection (supplemented by a few new boxes-full) on another table on the other side of the patio.
For favors every child got a little cello bags of lego with a red ribbon (duplo for the little siblings)...
(this is another after-the-fact shot… I just took this tonight with the leftover favors.)
...and we played Pin the Tail on Uni-Kitty/Angry Kitty, personally drawn by Matt.
I found our magician on Yelp and was a bit nervous before he arrived, but the kids were rapt and in stitches, and Katie Ray had an absolute ball with him. She was thrilled!
There was a bit of a fiasco with the pizza lunch, but all worked out well in the end -- other than my vision of a really cute presentation on over-sized platters. But the kids didn't seem to mind a bit.
And of course the cupcakes were red and turquoise, too! KR had requested red cupcakes and I added the white, plus some mini-cupcakes in turquoise, too.
All of the children got a little over excited at the sight of three-dozen cupcakes… KR did too!
Even with the wind she blew out the candles -- and hopefully all of her wishes will come true!
She ended the party with a little down time with one of her dearest friends.
We had a wonderful day!!
