elle's 7th birthday party!!

mike said i was going "katy perry" twice this week- you know, hot-cold, yes-no? party-on, party-off. i blame the rain. last week in utah the rain wreaked havoc on the photo shoots i had scheduled- well, the rain came home with us and stalked our weekend. we have had elle's party planned for a month. it's always been 85 degrees on the 1st of october, other than the day she was born- that day it was cold and stormy. well, apparently it was a flashback to day #1 of elle's mortal existence. the weathermen-fortune-tellers predicted rain for dayz. ("dayz" with a z because they make stuff up. so i'm throwing it back to 2002 when that was cool to do to words.)

october 1st, 2016. this day. party day. costume party day. 7th birthday costume party day.

elle birthday fell on a saturday- october 1st was a saturday! and i didn't have to work! (general conference weekend in salt lake was always busy for me work-wise... well, we aren't there anymore so that was helpful in that regard. [last conference weekend we moved into this very apartment! #sentimentalmood!]) well, the weather didn't care that elle's birthday was on a saturday.

friday afternoon mike convinced me to make the call. we postponed the party.

i had envisioned a party at this very spot in front of belvedere castle ever since the first time we visited! we would just have to wait until the rain subsided and party then. sigh.

saturday morning at 6am i woke up because there was chaos in my house (kids on a birthday). i tried to think of a plan b, and i checked the weather. but wait. where did all the rain go?????? NO RAIN! i sent out an update, and a giant group text: the party was back on. then i sprung up, made a cake, planned some treats, and sprinted to party city the minute they opened with my 2 kids just to get a "7" balloon. more on that balloon later....... 

mike decorated the house for when elle woke up- it's his tradition, and he's good at it, so that's what he does;) elle opened her gift from jude- a homemade robot costume! :) 

then mike took the kids to get donuts for the party at 6:26am.

we made it back from party city with our balloon, loaded the stroller to the MAX with supplies, then made it to the park with a few minutes to spare and got all set up! a minute later, jude went hulk on our balloon (aka: he punched it) and off it went.....

right into the sky.

farewell $15 balloon. 

walking 2 miles with that dumb thing bonking my head and wasting a precious hour of my morning was all for naught. darn you, hulk!!! 

(do you see it...?)

party favors & friends!

the costume party took a halloween theme because, well, it's october 1st, and that's easy to do.

i whipped out my best pinteresting (it's been a while!!), and made vampire donuts, monster rice crispy treats, and some weird bundt cake that we stuck extra eyeballs and spider rings on;) also, banana ghosts and mummy apples were drawn up on-site. 

(there is a little love affair between those two, and i sort of love watching it unfold;)

masks were made!

next up: cake time!

that poor cake. we basically stuck eyeballs on everything to make it cool. it sort of worked from a kid perspective.

i don't recommend transporting cakes in strollers.

elle pretend blew out the candle because the wind was not cooperating;) 

i'm so grateful for the friends who treat us like family- the kids and parents who are so amazing to us- especially elle & jude. we had an awesome day! elle declared it the "best birthday ever," which is always a good sign.

and the day ended with jude peeing in the bushes as we left. 

happy 7th birthday to our elle!!!

"frozen" party...

oh, disney. what have you done. i can't even remember life before "frozen." 

it's all elle talks about. 

pretends to be. 

sings. 

"frozen" has taken over how she dresses, wears her hair, and what she eats. 

actually- side note- "frozen" was the first movie we took jude to in a movie theater. "tangled" was the first we took elle to. kind of fun to plot their lives in the course of now-permanent disney princesses. (sorry, jude. one day you'll get to see boy-ish stuff like "cars" or "toy story.")

back to the party: elle was begging for a "frozen" party, so a couple days after the movie came out (stupid me preordered it, so i had the fabulous chance to wait in line at the disney store for 90 minutes on release day!)... we partied:)

this is elle prepping for her party-goers. me, watching from the hallway.

^^ my hiding spot was quickly discovered by jude.

the day of the party was madness- i got home about 40 minutes before our little guests were to arrive,  ran around and cleaned, and set up a couple of themed treats. mike picked up pizzas. 4-year-olds like pizza right? (what would we do without pizza?)

well, i may have slightly (greatly) underestimated the appetites of a dozen 4 & 5 year-olds. they ate everything in sight. all the food, plus about 3/4 my pantry. in an effort to distract them, i popped bowl-fulls of popcorn, and like starving little people they flocked to it! so funny. lesson learned: have more food ready.

they were only still for about 8 minutes at the beginning of the evening. 

the entire night jude walked around and ate scraps that fell on the floor and couch like a little puppy:)

^^ the best part of the night was when "let it go" came on, and in unison, they all "sang," twirled, and pretended to be elsa. completely synchronized. 

priceless. 

i texted most of the moms the video of them, it was so funny!

jude was busted eating the popcorn with the big kids. 

this boy and food. give me strength! :)

this "frozen" party was officially a success.