Birthday Party #9

On Friday, we had 8 little girls and 3 mommies at our house for a special little girl's 9th birthday party! Ashton decided on a TIE DYE themed party this year. She had 3 simple requests: to make tie dye t-shirts, have a silly string fight, and have her friends spend the night. Her birthday party wishes were pretty easy to make come true!

Once her theme was chosen, the party planning began.  She was very involved with the planning. She was happy to pick out the invitations, the party goods, the goody bags, the balloons, everything! We had fun looking on the internet and going shopping!

The one thing that stresses me out the most every year is the CAKE!  I am not a cake decorator and I do not have a steady hand. I always have either Gina or Jodi (or both of them) help me, but this year I was solo. I had no idea what kind of cake I was going to make and Ashton didn't really know what her options were, so I went and did a little surfing on the internet and found a tie dye/rainbow cake that I thought would be cool to do IF we  I could pull it off. Ashton LOVED the idea and we did a trial run to make sure it was actually do-able. The practice round was a success so the tie dye/rainbow cake became "THE CAKE". We decided it would cute (and fairly easy) to put a peace sign on top of it out of skittles to finish it off.

Here are a few pictures of how the cake looked as we were baking it the day before the party...

Since the tie dye t-shirt making was an activity that wasn't really "Landry Friendly" and since this was a 'Big Girl' party, Daddy took Landry to distract hang out with Carly and Mr. Bill. Miss Gina and Miss Jodi were my backup and helped tremendously with the party!  Miss Jodi also did an excellent job as the party photographer.

Ashton was tickled with how the cake turned out. 

At one point while I was trying to get the icing all smooth and pretty (I started to panic a little bit because either Jodi or Gina has done it for me or we have done cupcakes where it isn't necessary) and my precious nine year old looked at me and said, "Mommy, you really should have had Miss Gina or Miss Jodi help you!" I wasn't offended, in fact, it made me laugh AND I was thinking the same exact thing!  Daddy actually did a pretty good job of getting the icing smooth, so it all worked out in the end! 

So...we ran into a small glitch with the tie dye. I didn't realize that I didn't have enough pairs of plastic gloves. So...the girls ended up sharing and Miss Jodi didn't wear any!  Both Miss Gina and Miss Jodi were life savers and fantastic help with the tie dye shirts. And...Miss Jodi even made herself some *pretty* tie dyed fingers! She definitely took one for the team! On the plus side, she did have fingers that matched her outfit! I felt horrible....totally and completely horrible!

Happy Birthday Ashton Raley!!!

{I hope this year is full of happiness for you...I hope your birthday wish comes true my sweet girl!}

All along she wanted the inside of the birthday cake to be a surprise until it was cut and served. When her friends asked what kind of cake it was, she told them it was vanilla (because it was) and when they saw the brightly colored cake on the plate, the oooohs and ahhhhhs  filled the room! It was perfect and just the way she wanted it!

Once the cake was devoured, it was time for presents! Her friends really know her and gave her some precious gifts. She scored a charm bracelet and birthday charms from Abigail; a Justice gift card and a fuzzy "A" journal from Merran; a zebra shoulder bag and pencil from Maddi; a SUPER cute peace sign cup and Sonic Happy Hour gift card as a bonus and not necessary second gift from the Leonards and Scheers; and a pink tutu skirt and tank top from Kaitlyn.

Miss Jodi took a picture of our birthday girl with each of her friends after she opened their gift! {You'll notice that Ashton took the tape off of her white tie dye shirt and stuck it on her tank top and wore it for the rest of the party...silly girl!}

She has such sweet friends and she LOVES them to pieces!!

Group Shot!

And of course the Silly Face group shot too!

After the presents were opened and pictures were taken, and since it had started to cool down just a bit, the girls headed outside with their cans of silly string and were ready for a SILLY STRING FIGHT!!!

They started by all standing in a line aiming at Ashton which she thought was fun!

After the silly string fight was over and the the yard was picked up, the girls headed in to put on jammies. They got settled and watched the Disney Channel Movie "Lemondade Mouth" while munching on  some popcorn and skittles.  While we were out shopping for the party supplies, Ashton thought it would be cool for the girls to wear glow bracelets while they watched the movie. 

When they woke up in the morning, Daddy went and got the girls some donuts for breakfast. After they were fed, they spent the rest of the time singing with the karaoke machine and dancing. I wish I would have grabbed my camera and taken some pictures of them...they were having so much fun!

All in all, Ashton LOVED her birthday party and had a total BLAST! It was everything she wanted it to be. I love that she was so specific with what she wanted and that she wanted to be so involved in the planning. I had so much fun planning it and getting it together with her!