Birthday Parties

CousinsBryker enjoying his cupcake
Does anyone else have trouble getting a decent family picture? Apparently, Trevor and I were the only ones who could figure out where the camera was...
Tea Party
Karaoke/Dance party
Kaylee celebrated her 5th birthday with two parties: a family party and a friend party. She chose a Barbie Rapunzel theme for this year, because every birthday party needs a theme. Our girls choose a birthday theme usually months in advance. It is a BIG deal to them!

Both parties were fun. For Kaylee's family party she had lots of fun playing with her cousins and had about 30 people there to support her. For her friend party she had had six friends come over. We tried not to plan as many activities this year, as last year was a bit stressful with 11 kids and lots of activities. This year went much better. I'm sure it didn't hurt that the kids are all a year older and that I wasn't 7 months pregnant! For activities, we read the book "Barbie Rapunzel" to the kids and had a tea party using my nice china upon which we served raspberry tea and cupcakes. We attempted to have a Barbie play center, which maybe lasted 2 minutes before the kids ran into the playroom. They ended up just playing for awhile and then we had them put on some dress up clothes before breaking out the karaoke machine. We let them use the microphone and choose a song to sing. They were able to pick from a number of princess songs, the "Mary Poppins" Soundtrack, the "Annie" soundtrack, or "Jingle Bells". We weren't quite sure what to expect, since most of them are still too young to read the lyrics. They seemed to have fun with it though and the rest of the girls danced to the music when it wasn't their turn. We ended the party with a coloring center and presents. Now that all the presents are out of the boxes, it is tough to say what Kaylee's favorite gift is, as it seems to keep changing. However, Kianna feels like she hit the jackpot with all of the Polly Pocket stuff, especially the Polly Pocket pool. They have kept her entertained for hours. Ah, the benefits of being the little sister...