Katie's Party With Friends

Katie's Birthday Party
Several months ago, Katie begged me for two birthday parties.  At the time, we had planned to go to the beach this Summer.  It would have been great to have Katie a little party there because she really loves the sand and ocean.  Unfortunately, we were forced to cancel because of the oil spill in the Gulf.  We talked it over and being she was turning the BIG 5 this year, we decided to let her have a party with her friends.  I did a lot of research because I really didn't want the party here.  For the past 4 years, she's had her birthday parties at home and I thought we would do something different.  Well after the search was over and went over all of our venues and discussions with Katie, we came to a conclusion and it was to stay at home.  LOL! 

Oh my gosh!  I never knew how expensive some places were until I checked them out.  I think we throw pretty decent parties at home, but we spend no where near what it cost to go to some of these places.  For instance, we have a new indoor/outdoor swimming center.  I figured it would cost because it's fairly new, but nothing could have braced me for what I was about to find out.  Because I wasn't a current member, it would cost me $450+ for 2 hours (I believe).  The lady I spoke to talked as if this was a great deal because we would have access to a room for food and either one of the pools.  I found out later that even if you were a member, it would still cost you $250 for those 2 hours.  Shew! 

I checked out a party place that has all the inflatables inside a building.  They do parties for $190 - 11/2 to 2 hours.  This would include your room for food and an hours worth of the inflatables.  The girl, all excited, announced "oh at this price that would include your socks," like that would really make a difference.  LOL!

We considered going to a local park this way the kids could go on a train ride, feed the ducks/fish, play on the playground, etc.  We may still have to do this one year because Katie really like this idea.  That is until I came up with the perfect plan.  I found a couple of places that rented moonwalks for $140.  I really wanted to go to this one place because they were closed both Saturday and Sunday.  We could pick it up on Friday afternoon and won't have to return it until the next Monday for $140.  She would have been able to play on the thing Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.  What a great deal!  When I called to reserve the moonwalk, the owner informed me the people that rented it last damaged it and was not in working order.  {Boo!}  I was so sad because you can't beat that price.  On to plan II.

Saturday morning, Doug picked up the moonwalk.  It concerned us because he said the rental place picked the deflated moonwalk (full of water from the rain) with a forklift and placed it inside the bed of our truck.  WHAT?  You talk about HEAVY, but we drug the thing out of our truck by hand.  Fortunately, the owners gave Doug two blowers.  They told him it would take no time to get all the water out with both blowers going.  We hooked them babies up and the water poured out of the moonwalk.

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Katie had  a wonderful party, I thought.  After much deliberation, she decided to have a Hello Kitty party.  I thought it was a great choice, it just looked like her.  She loves Hello Kitty!  I hate going into Monograms Plus because right by the check out counter, they have a HUGE display of Hello Kitty items.  Everytime, I hear "Mooom!  Can I pleeeeaseee have one?"

Katie's personal cake with a Hello Kitty candle

I found some word stamps in script by Wilton to help you write on the icing. I would hate to try to write  script freestyle, so this helped me out a lot. I had to be careful because the stamp would lift some of the icing up, once I raised the stamp up. You really couldn't notice once I wrote over it with my icing writer. I still haven't mastered fondant. Ugh! Sometimes I want to throw my hands up, but I understand it takes patience and much practice. All I wanted to do was apply a small strip or ribbon of blue fondant at the bottom of the cake, between the cake and pedestal. Well, I cut the strip too wide and I think it looks stupid. To add to that little oops, I didn't roll it out long enough because when I would roll out the fondant, it wanted to go wide and not long. When I tried to spread out the fondant a little more, I noticed it was making parts of the fondant thin and began cracking. Ugh! I tried a couple other ways to get it longer. Once I thought it was long enough, I cut and applied it to the cake just to find out that I was short 1/2 inch. UGH! Oh well! I also wanted to try sprinkling some edible sparkling pink dust on the icing. Well it didn't say on the package, but it must be for fondant cakes or while making candy because it poured freely. It said you could use a brush to apply a little on cake. I knew it wouldn't work with a buttercream cake, but I tried. NOPE! This is why you see dark pink streaks in the icing on Katie's cake. LOL! No one ever knew my mistakes.

Guests Cupcakes - sprayed blue food coloring on buttercream, accented w/flower candies

I made just enough cake because it was gone by the end of the party. We had party hats, blowers and goodie bags for all the guests. Little "J" had a sad face while Katie was opening up her gifts. He asked me "where's my present?" Priceless! Oh, it just made your heart sink. Little "J" is only 2 years old and is the brother to one of Katie's friends, "J". J's mom and I hope that the girls will be in the same classroom next Fall at their new school. I told Little "J" that as soon as Katie opened all of her gifts, he had to help me get all the presents for all the other kids. He's little eyes lite up with excitement. Buddy, he came right to me when she finished. Here we go! I had a bunch of different candies inside the bags, including Hubba Bubba Bubblegum. It's the best gum to blow really big bubbles. It didn't take Little "J" long before he shoved 3 pieces of gum in his little mouth. LOL! I wished I had taken a picture of him chewing that gum. Cute! I also had Sourheads in the bags. HAHA! The kids were having fun tasting it and making these terrible faces. Funny.

Little "J" catching a ride

I had to take this picture of the kids. J's mom and I were laughing at these kids. They played so well together, taking turns, but Little "J" couldn't stand back and wait his turn. He had to be apart of the fun too. LOL! Then the big girls tried to hang on to the back when it was their turn, we were afraid that they would end up flipping that Jeep over. LOL!

Guess How Many M&Ms?

We did get to play one of three games that I had planned. I put a specific number of M&Ms inside this glass canister. The object of the game is all the guests have a chance to write down how many they think are in this canister along with their name. If they come close to the amount in the jar, they win the M&Ms and jar. I didn't tell a soul as to the amount in the jar. I didn't even tell Doug. Would you believe that my mother guessed the exact amount? She didn't just get close to the number, she guessed it correctly. I couldn't believe it! She wrote down 500, which was correct. I put in 100 M&Ms per year Katie has been in this world. She was shocked when I told her that she won. Would you believe the turkey left the jar here? She said she was giving them to Katie for a gift. I thought that was so sweet, but we really didn't need them because I bought a 42 oz. bag of them. Ugh! Now we have this jar FULL of M&Ms. We shouldn't run out anytime soon unless I begin stressing out this Summer, which is possible.

Katie was excited to see "A" again.  It's been a LONG time since those girls have gotten together.  I guess it's been close to a year.  Come to find out A and J's mommies knew each other through Gymnastics.  I was so glad because it just makes conversation easier for everyone.  Us, mommies agreed that we need to try to get the girls together again this Summer.  Hopefully next time, we'll be in the air conditioning.  Shew!  It was so hot outside.  If it wasn't for the somewhat cool breeze, I would have suggested us going in the house.  

It was late in the evening, but Katie and the boys wouldn't give up jumping in the moonwalk.  I brought out the Ice Pops to cool them down some because their faces were so red.  You wouldn't think it would be that hot inside those things, but I got in it and man, I didn't stay long at all. 

I was so thankful to God for allowing us to have this party for Katiebug because every day for the past couple of weeks we've had afternoon thunderstorms.  I prayed a few days before Katie's party that He would wait until after the party and God answered my prayers.  He waited until later into the evening hours before letting it all come down.  Shew!  We had a nice thunderstorm, it rained so hard.  But you know it seems like the harder it rains the quicker it ends.  We've had a lot of those for the past three weeks, but of course with hard rain showers comes flash flooding.  We've had our share of them.  

Katie was sad this afternoon when we had to deflat her moonwalk.  She kept begging us all weekend, if we could just keep it.  She got her enjoyment out of it and I think it was money well spent.  

Millard celebrates his birthday tomorrow. 

Happy Birthday Millard!  

We were able to take him and Peggy out to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse this afternoon.  The kids were pretty good, but as soon as they ate their mac-n-cheese and fries, they were ready to go to Target.  Ugh!  Of course, everyone had to wait on me because I'm so slow eating.  You would think I'd learn and just order an appetizer.  Their desserts looked scrumptious, but like always - NO ROOM.