Thanks for Shell-abrating!

Today is Cute's birthday and I can not believe that my tiny baby boy is six today! In my head I still picture that teeny tiny little blonde toddler giggling around the house, but each day I am reminded he is growing up at warp speed. 

We have a few fun things planned to celebrate the big day with him, but the celebrations have already been well underway. Over the weekend we hosted a small little party for him.

This year we scaled the birthday celebrations way back. We just weren't up for a big party, and with Disney on the horizon for his birthday/winter break, we felt like keeping things low key would be the best way to go. We told him since he was turning six, he could pick six friends to take somewhere fun. I asked Cute what he wanted this year, and he said without a doubt he wanted Ninja Turtles Laser Party. So Ninja Turtles Laser Party it was! We scheduled a laser tag, bumper car, bowling, boy fueled afternoon, ordered some pizza, and called it a day. It was so much fun, and we absolutely loved having a more intimate group. I definitely think this is how we are going to do parties moving forward. So. Much. EASIER.  

Even though we kept it pretty simple, I couldn't let the day go without putting my own little something into the mix. Sticking with tradition, I decided to do at least a themed favor. I came across these super cute Ninja Turtle Travel Books, and thought they were perfect for this age group.

I paired each book with a gel pen I found in Ninja Turtle themed colors, and it made for the easiest favor ever.

Plus I figured parents would appreciate a busy book over a candy treat or another toy around the house.

After messing with a few different TMNT sayings, I whipped up fun themed thank you note.

I found some blue sparkly ribbon, grabbed my favorite handy dandy bags to wrap gifts in, and had a cute wrapped favor in just seconds. 

I think they turned out adorable, and when Cute handed them to his friends it seemed like they were a big hit.  

To grab an unpersonalized version of this printable for your own little Ninja Turtle loving little one you can download it HERE. 

Now off to shower my baby boy with hugs, kisses, and will time to stop. Or at least put the breaks on a little bit. 

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Planning the Perfect Sleepover Party

My blonde haired baby girl isn't a baby anymore. In my mind I still picture her like this:

A sweet little preschooler with bouncy curls and a smile that never left her face.  However, I blinked and she's grown up to be a sweet and sporty seven year old with a little bit of sass.  The saying is true for her...she's made up of a both sugar and spice!

When we started thinking about her birthday party she knew immediately what she wanted to do.  She wanted a sleepover with her best friends.  The first thing I did when planning her party was limit the number of girls attending.  Sleepovers are A LOT of work and they might be intimidating for some moms.  You want everyone to have fun, get along, and feel safe and comfortable in a new setting, especially at bedtime.  I read somewhere that you should take the birthday girls' age and divide it by 3 and that is how you know how many girls to invite.  We rounded up and ended up inviting 3 of her closest friends.  The other thing I made sure of is that all of the girls knew each other ahead of time.  They are all friends from school, even though they are in different classes. Also, I know all of the mother's really well so I knew they would be OK having them come over for the night.

Blondie had very specific ideas about what she wanted to do at her party.  So much so that she wrote it all down for me to refer to as I planned the details of her party.  My type A planning might have rubbed off on her just a little. ;-)

I set up our dining room with the party decorations and here is a tip that I want to share with you all.  Use party stuff over and over again!  I have two plastic bins full of all my party stuff. I have every color I could possibly want and after each party I carefully pack everything away until the next birthday.  Then I can pull out the things to hang from the lights, the table decor, the banners, etc. and not have to re-make or re-buy it all.  The birthday banner and signs were actually from Blondie's 4th birthday party and I pulled the corresponding colors for the lanterns and other hanging decor from my stash!  The runner was a gift from the Mr.'s grandmother to me this Christmas and it looked PERFECT on the table!

When the girls first arrived they took off to Blondie's room and played for a little while.  I had originally planned a craft for this time, but we decided to cut that idea at the last minute.  I saw some cute ideas for decorating pillow cases that I thought were darling, but Blondie said they would rather play "school" so that is what they did.

While they were busy playing I got everything set up for the scavenger hunt.  I had made up clues to lead the girls around the house.  At the end they would find a special prize!

They LOVED this activity.  I had about 12 clues and I wish I would have done twice as many because it really was fun for all of them.  They were also really good about taking turns reading the clues and working together to figure out where to go next.  It was the simplest activity, but their favorite, by far.

At the end they found their prize, matching pajamas!  These also doubled as their party favors.  One little bit of info about Blondie and her friends...they love to match.  They often plan their outfits at school for the next day and then the mothers and I are text each other at night to confirm the outfit choices for the following day (or the girls are texting on our phones to do the planning).  It's so cute, so I knew they would all be so excited about matching pajamas to sleep in.  I monogrammed the shorts so everyone could keep up with who's was who's.

Next it was about time for dinner.  We ordered pizza and the girls toasted with sparkling cider.

We used these pink depression glass that I found tucked away in a box at my mother-in-law's house last weekend. I had totally forgotten about this box of treasures and was so happy to find it.  My grandmother gave it to me just after I was married and I remember using it at her house as a child. I always felt so fancy and grown up using it so I hoped the girls would feel the same.  Plus, it matched perfectly!

Instead of having cupcakes or cake, Blondie really wanted to go for frozen yogurt so that is what we did. I had the girls in my car and Mr. took Boo-Boo with him.  They loaded up their cups and giggled the whole time.

When we got back they changed into their PJ's and she opened her gifts.  I loved the smaller setting with just a few friends!  Next they decided on a movie and I felt like I constantly was refilling their popcorn bowls.

Finally it was time for bed. I let them set a timer for 15 minutes to "talk" and then told them they needed to go to bed.  They were still up giggling past that time and I knew they all had to be exhausted so I sat in the room with them so they would stop talking and they were all fast asleep within minutes.

The next morning they woke up bright and early, but thankfully they were happy to play a little on their own before they were ready for breakfast.  That gave me time to get the waffle bar and other goodies ready.

I had made homemade waffles the night before while they were watching the movie so all I had to do was heat them up and set out our toppings.  We had chocolate chips, sprinkles and strawberries for toppings.  I also made kabobs with fruit and donut holes.  They all loved breakfast and it was a sweet way to start they day!

They had just a little while longer to play before it was time for everyone to get dressed and go home.  Then I was ready for a nap!  I mentioned to Blondie that I was tried and she told me she was more than tired...she was exhausted.  I asked her if it was worth it though and the huge smile on her face gave me the answer.  She felt special, love being the birthday girl, and was happily surrounded by her closest friends to celebrate her big day. Yes, it was a lot of work for me, but it was worth it!

 

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