5 Things Thursday: The Birthday Party

Last Wednesday (the 21st), Della turned 2, and Tuesday (the 27th), Simon turned 5.

So we split the difference and combined their birthday parties into one big bash last Saturday.

We had a great turnout of our closest friends and family (especially considering it was two days after Thanksgiving, and pulling oneself out of a tryptophan-induced coma to attend a birthday party is an impressive feat!), and we did everything in what we call the “big room” in our new(ish) addition.

It worked great! Lots of room. Lots of fun. And some great memories.

Which, of course, I captured ad nauseum on my camera (to the tune of 400 pics).

Never fear. I will not be sharing all 400 with you today, but—fair warning—this is a pretty picture-heavy post.

And since it’s 5 Things Thursday, I’ve broken down the festivities into 5 different categories:

1.

FOOD

Since the theme was Pirates and Princesses, and it was a kids’ party after all, I decided to have some fun with the food.

For the Princess side of the table, we had such delicacies as:

and

I might be most proud of these simply because I came up with the idea all by my lonesome (just think; we had to do this all the time before blogs and Pinterest came along!)

And then there was:

and

For Della’s cake, I made a princess with a little gum-drop tiara that at least marginally resembled Princess Della herself (if Della were on the bobble-head diet and had considerably shorter hair, of course).

{I more or less followed this simple tutorial}

For the pirate side of the table, we had more yummy treats like these:

(pretzels dipped in almond bark)

(mini sausages with little pirate flags)

(mac ‘n cheese)

Simon’s cake was a pirate ship:

{Which I made using this tutorial}

We served lunch, which my amazingly sweet father-in-law made—fish tacos fresh from the catch he and my hubby had just gotten from a deep-sea fishing trip.

{Here he is, dipping out the slaw he made from scratch after he’d finished frying up all the fish in my kitchen; he’s too nice to me!}

The table wasn’t exactly Pinterest-worthy, but I still had fun with it—lights, party favors, food—it was all there.

I also printed out a bunch of pics of Simon and Della and pinned them to a big bulletin board, which was a blast for me because it gave me a chance to reminisce about the memories we had made in those photos.

I love this shot of the kids lined up excitedly waiting to dig into all the yummy food!

2.

FASHION

With a theme like Pirates and Princesses, you have to know that there was a little dressing up involved.

I found Della’s dress on clearance at Old Navy, and she should be able to get plenty more wears out of it (despite some significant punch spillage—thanks goodness for Shout!) since, even in the small range of her size, it was still a bit big on her.

I made her princess hat out of paper, then covered it with shiny duct tape (yes, duct tape) and added the fabric streamer for a bit of a medieval flair.

This is what Della does whenever we tell her to smile now. Oy!

Oh my word! Look at her and her handsome daddy! My heart just skipped a beat!

And here’s sweet Avalie, one of her fellow princesses, showing off her best posed smile. : )

The birthday pirate boy wasn’t having any of this princess sissyness. He was much more interested in swords and tough pirate bandanas.

{Although you wouldn’t know it from this pic : )}

And then there were my cousin, Susan, and her two boys. She MADE all their shirts. Aren’t they fabulous?

3.

FACE PAINTING

I thought it might be loads of fun to get someone to paint the kids’ faces, so I asked our babysitter, Sage, to help out.

She’d never done face painting before, but she’s the type of girl who dives right in when you ask her to help, and I’ve rarely seen someone who enjoys kids more than she does.

Here Simon is getting his pirate face done.

and Isabella about to transform into a butterfly.

Ava got a crown…

Della stayed still as a statue for her butterfly…

and Ezra looked downright manly with his beard and eye-patch.

4.

FUN

Everybody seemed to be having a grand old time…

Eating

{this is my adorable nephew, Max}

{Birthday princesses get hand-fed by their Softas}

Opening presents

…and sitting on them

Then, of course, it was cake time, and nothing’s much more fun than mounds of sugar and frosting!

and finally, the kids raided the treasure chest to fill their goody bags…

5.

FELLOWSHIP

{ha! I needed another “f” to round out my list, so I decided to whip out the “Christianese” term for spending time with friends and family)

Evy loved hanging out with her Sabba (my dad).

Both twins were pretty happy to just be held by Sabba and Softa as they anticipated their party-food flavored mama-milk to come.

{My pretty niece, Lissy, with her daddy}

………………………………………………………………….

All in all, the party was a wild success in my estimation.

The food got eaten (and, more importantly, at least partially prepared by someone other than me : )).

The fun got had.

And smiles were abundant.

We’ll definitely have to do it again in another 5 years. : )