who likes to rock the party? we do.

remember when the girl turned 6? it's still her birthday month so i still have posting rights.

when i was a wee lass i remember how awesome it was when your birthday party fell on your actual birthday. BEST DAY EVER.

and that second picture moment when you see your present and it's exactly what you were begging your mom for at that cool toy store in laramie but she said "no why don't you get one of these little thingers instead?" and then you kind of forgot about it so you're surprised after all? yes, wonderful. the day is starting out well.

party time

while last year our theme was pretty specific (kitty unicorn butterfly party) this year we just went with "lots of colors and you get tickets"

'

so upon their very excited arrival, they got a bag for their tickets. only it had a coin hidden inside so they got to play the claaaaaw while we waited for everyone. no one cried.

then we had some ticket stations. with some expert ticket station helpers. my #1 party girl (and youngest sister) hanna. best cousins of all (sorry other cousins) eli and olivia. and the matching game child whisperer (again, no one cried) nichole (the neck-tied boy's mom)

station 1 was drawing. here's what we drew. they're still up.

next station included lego-extraordinaire eli directing marshmallow toothpick building. he's good. those little boys have something nerdy to aspire to.

station 3 was the hat making station. everyone got to pick the trim color on their party hat and glue the glitter letter on with hanna. no one got stapled.

station 4 was me. get your picture taken and record a video message to the birthday girl.

probably won't post it because then i won't get to it until next year but the highlights were that aaron thinks lily will be an iron chef when she grows up and 3 boys predicted that lily would marry them.

of course everyone got tickets at all 4 stations. but we needed a couple more to get to the magic birthday number 6. so we split into groups to play:

once upon a time fairy tale bingo

and classic matching

also i wore my party shoes.

so once you had collected at least 6 tickets (luckily everyone did) you earned the right to participate in the present opening game. i explained that since lily would get to open so many presents today, we wanted to give just one present to one of our friends. and that since it was wrapped in transformers paper it would have to be a boy. i was amazed that everyone just solemnly accepted their fate at this point.

we started music and passed a ginormous box around until the music stopped and the luckiest boy ever got to open a big huge present. only inside was a little boyish prize and ANOTHER BOX! and it was wrapped in princess paper so it must be for a girl this time!

repeat.

repeat.

repeat.

repeat.

repeat.

and keep repeating.

it was a birthday miracle that i was able to round up 10 boxes that fit inside one another. all the way down to a baby ibuprofen box. so each kid in fact did get a prize and get to open a box. it was fun. most of them were convinced the game would stop around box 6 and the rest of them would be out of luck. zach finally won a pirate compass in the tiny box and yelled victoriously that it was what he always wanted.

at some point we had some snacks. don't remember. lily requested mini hot dogs and chocolate dipped strawberries. that girl has class. also popped some popcorn (not in the microwave even). i think that was also a highlight.

lily requested this wrapping up game earlier but then wasn't in the mood so we used volunteers.

don't judge. we spun the bottle to see which present she got to open. whichever friend it landed on got to hand her their gift. and they were wonderful and there was lots of shrieking and a few mentions of the words pillow + pet.

candle time.

our birthday cake was rainbow birthday cake pops. which she'll be more grateful for when she's the mom and stays up late molding and dipping tiny cake blobs. like i am for my ice cream cone cake and wooden bead painting crafts and sleepovers.

happy birthday, lu