Celebrating A Decade

 This past Friday, was the day we celebrated Ashton's 10th birthday with her friends. This poor girl...not only is her birthday in the summer, but it also so close to the 4th of July. Since her special day is so close to the 4th of July, a lot of her friends are usually out of town. It has kind of been the new tradition that we wait and celebrate later in the month. Luckily for us, she is pretty easy going and is okay with waiting for her party.

Ashton always seems to know exactly what she wants for her birthday as far as the party goes. She has always been very active in the planning and picking out of things for her party. This year she wanted to do a "Craft Party". At first she wanted to do TEN crafts....but that would have taken about ten days to get it done! 

We searched and pinned all kinds of things on Pinterest for her party. She was pretty excited to have her friends come celebrate with a sleepover. 

My TEN year old birthday girl helped make the cupcakes for her party. I LOVED having her in the kitchen with me for this part! We didn't have to frost them since one of the crafty activities was for the girls to decorate their own cupcakes during the party. She chose the colors for the icing and we whipped up a batch of Miss Gina's frosting for the girls to use to make their cupcake master pieces.

We printed an activity/craft on a card and stuck it inside the balloons...whenever they were ready for a new thing to do, the girls each took a turn popping a balloon to reveal the activity.  Here is the line up of crafts and activities: dinner, glitter body art, cupcake decorating, friendship bracelets, jumbo paper clip & ribbon  book marks, ribbon braided flip flops, movie & popcorn, and key chains.

We kept the sign that Mamo and Papo had made for her on actual birthday and had her friends sign it too.

As the girls arrived, they sat down and decorated their bags to keep up with all their crafty goodness.

{Dinner was pizza and pink lemonade...how cute was their "Cheers"?!}

{Popping a balloon to see what's next.}

{Glitter Body Art was super cool!}

{Jumbo Paper Clip and Ribbon Book Marks}

{The Littles were pretty excited that they were able to participate in a few of the crafts too!}

{Gifts}

Ashton's Party Guests...she had 3 sets of friends partying with her.

Back: Kaitlyn (friend from Carroll/Softball), Macy (friend from birth), Ashton, Kate (friend from Pink), Anna (friend since Anna was born almost 8 years ago)

Front: Maddy (Friend from Carroll), Merran (Family Friend), McKenzie (friend from Pink)

The next activity out of the balloon...Cupcake Decorating!

These girls were SERIOUS about their cupcakes. They decorated one to take home and one to eat after Ashton blew out her candles!

Once they finished decorating and we stuck candles in 10 of the cupcakes...it was time for some singing, wish making, and candle blowing out!

Ashton Raley...we hope ALL of your wishes come true! Here is to a great year Precious Girl!!

Thanks to Pinterest, we packaged up everyone's second cupcake to take home! 

I absolutely LOVE this 10 year old.

She was having such a fun time at her party!!

We decided to combine two activities or we would have been up ALL night! So they watched a movie and made friendship bracelets.We saved the last craft for in the morning after they scarfed down their donuts. The flips flops should have been done first (that was the only flaw to the balloon idea) because they were a bit time consuming. They didn't finish so I had to send them home with the supplies. I hated sending them home without the flip flops being done.

At the beginning of the party, Daddy and Mr. Bill took Landry and Carly on a double date. They had a yummy dinner at Chili's then stopped by Paciugo for some gelato before heading back to join the party.  While they were out, they took some pictures on their phones...

Landry and Carly were beyond tickled that they had a date with their Daddies, and had the chance to make some crafts too.

I was lucky to have my two usual extra sets of hands for the party. Miss Jodi and Miss Gina came and stayed to help with the crafts and take pictures. I love that they hang out and help me...they are lifesavers!

Another birthday party in the books...I think she had a great time celebrating the fact that she has been on this planet for an entire decade!

Happy Birthday Ashton Raley! 

We love you more than you know!!