Reese turned 7 this year, and because it is an odd number, we had a birthday party for her at home. She wanted a theme of winter wonderland, which we gladly obliged especially sine it meant we could leave a lot of the decorations up after the party was over. And it blended in with our Christmas tree.
As usual, Sarah's birthday organizational skills were at their peak and we were able to handle a total of eleven girls without breaking a sweat, or at least that is how we choose to remember it. The key was to have activity after activity after activity. Of course you can't plan for everything. For instance, the first excitement of the day occurred when the first guest arrived. Reese brought her upstairs to show off her room and her pet fish. Seconds later, Reese came running downstairs to announce that Chuck had died. So we flew into action - Sarah distracted the girls while John swooped in and flushed Chuck down the drain. But like all things, the show must go on. First up was decorating pre-fabricated gingerbread houses. As everyone knows, it is important not only to help young kids with the smaller decorations, but also to try and make sure more get on the house than in their mouths. Not an easy task.
It is also important to have lots of choices when it comes to decorations, for young children have preferences and no problem declaring them. The island was littered with candy canes, dummies, frosting, sprinkles, mints, and the list goes on. One particular crowd pleaser was the sugar ice cream cone turned upside down to create a Christmas tree.
It all happened in stages, and the roof was typically set number one. Here we have a picture of Reese's good friend Ella with stage one of her house complete. Each girl approached their design very differently - some were strategic, some believed more of everything was better, and some were too busy eating the decorations to care.
We were running around assisting all the girls with all of their requests and demands, and we were very happy to see how helpful Callie was throughout this process. In fact she never made her ginger bread house because she was so busy assisting all of Reese's friends. In other words, Callie was the perfect big sister in this situation. We could not have done it without her.
And at the center of it all, Reese was having a blast. She was so excited to have a birthday party, and loved decorating the gingerbread house. She could not wait for the next phase of the party she had planned with Sarah.
But before the next activity could start we had to stop and get a group photo of the whole crew. They are not a shy bunch, so they were more than willing to pose and smile for the camera. There is a lot of sweetness and sass in this photo.
The next activity was building snow girls out of the various items we had put together. We divided the girls up into three groups and each group had to work quickly together to make one team member a snow girl. It was noisy, silly, and fun to watch, that's for sure.
When the buzzer sounded we had three fine looking snow girls - Reese, Mary, and Shelby. Each one had a distinctive flair and was proud of the work done by their respective teams. We were pretty impressed that the activity was such a hit. Two down, two to go.
Next up we shifted our attention to the dining room so that the girls could show off their arts and crafts skills by making book marks and snowflakes. Again, each girl took this task in her own unique direction depending on her personality. Some were detail oriented and others had the need for speed. But one thing they all had in common - everyone loved the laminator, which was a purchase made specifically for this day. We can now help you with all of your laminating needs.
One of Reese's favorite aspects of the party was that everyone got a polar bear cupcake, a treat that was quickly followed by the final event of the day, a dance party. The polar bears, decorated by none other than Sarah, were one more big hit on a day of hits. The girls absolutely loved the polar bears, and Reese was excited to tell them that her Mom made each one.
And here she is, our wonderful daughter. And so we are clear, the seven looked right to her. Somehow we managed to forget to tell her to turn it around for this picture. Regardless, you can see it in her face that she loved every minute of her birthday celebration and will cherish the memories for years. At least that is what we choose to believe, and we are the ones writing this after all.
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