Best. Birthday. Ever. Seriously. Kenzie had a blast!!! I'm not sure how we are going to compete with this year after year.
This year we took a trip to Pixie Hollow. Apparently we only saw Summer while we were there though because it was HOT HOT HOT. (All 4 seasons exist at once in Pixie Hollow for any of my non-Tinkerbell watching friends.) Months ago Kenzie asked for a Minnie Mouse party. Right before I started to plan that party, I asked one more time what theme she wanted and she quickly changed her mind. She insisted that she wanted a Tinkerbell party. We knew that this year was going to be a bit different for us because we planned on having the bounce house, so I cut back significantly on my decorations. Last minute we decided to move the entire party outside. We ended up borrowing some tents and setting everything up in the garage and driveway as well as the side of the house and it worked out perfectly. We had quite a few fans and the weather graced us with some rain so it was cooler and cloudier for a bit (before the humidity really started to set in.)
Anyway, our decorations were much lower key than usual, but I loved the way everything turned out.
Both kids slept in quite late this morning. It was super nice. Kenzie was fully asleep until about 8:30 this morning. She woke up just in time to see her special surprise. The bounce house! She didn't know a thing about it. I'm so surprised that we kept it a secret this long. I carried her out of the house this morning and as soon as she saw it (not even inflated yet) she screeched, "A jump house!!!" She was stoked. Almost immediately upon its arrival, the girls from next door showed up. Apparently large blow up items attract a crowd. It was sort of like Field of Dreams. Or ants at a picnic. Either way, all the girls and Will stood outside and marveled at this thing. We stood outside and watched them inflate it for a bit before going inside while they finished. Once it was done, we had to take a trip inside to see how it was. It was awesome! We had to stop for a family selfie. Haha! Neither kid was even out of pjs yet. That's how you start a birthday morning!
This bounce house was amazing! It was a 4-in-1. It had a basketball hoop inside, you could jump, you could climb the ladder, and then slide down. The slide was a water slide. There was water pumped in on top of you and on the slide and you slid right into a pool at the bottom. I totally recommend one of these for a July birthday party. Kenzie immediately began asking me if she could put her swimsuit on. We made the kids eat breakfast first and then let them get dressed in suits. Then, she started asking for her sunblock so she could go play in the water. (I train these kids well...) I held her off until around 11am before just saying to go ahead.
Before too many people got there and it was still sort of quiet, she took a few trips down the water slide. She always went down feet first and on her tummy though. I think it was more to keep the water from shooting her in the face. And also, when you were sitting at the top of the slide, it seemed pretty steep. Plus, you moved pretty fast because of the water. Regardless, she loved it.
Once her friends began showing up, it was like watching a pinball machine. These kids were running and jumping and just circling. Into the bounce house, up the ladder, down the slide, repeat. For what seemed like hours. Will and a couple of the younger kids hung out in the kiddie pool with the water table and had a blast with that. It was definitely a good idea to have that out there for the little ones or even the older kids that needed a break from all the excitement of the bounce house. Kenzie didn't go down the slide again while her friends were around. We think sometimes she just gets a bit overwhelmed and she worries about getting hurt. Although, maybe she has a reason to worry.... One of the rules of the bounce house was that you weren't supposed to wear glasses in it. I did a bad mommy thing and let her take them in because I knew that would help her worry less about water in her eyes while going down the slide. It did, but I didn't remove them from her possession once she stopped going down the slide and she fell while jumping and they jabbed into her face leaving quite the shiner. Oops. Mommy fail! She recovered quickly though and it wasn't long before she was running around like a crazy person again.
It wasn't too long before Steven's BFF, Mike, had to get in on the action. If there is ever craziness going on around our house at a party, you can almost always assume Mike is involved. He was the first adult willing to try the water slide. Eventually Steven followed suit and I went down it myself a few times. It was way more difficult than I expected. The stairs were these little bitty things that you had to turn your foot on sideways to step on... well, you did if you had big adult feet. Then, you had to pull yourself up using straps, but if you pulled too hard, you would start separating the velcro holding the slide on so you had to be careful of that. Once you got to the top though, it was an easy ride down. Haha! I must admit, it was pretty fun.
Anyway, back to the actual party... Kenzie requested pizza for her birthday... Unfortunately, our pizza was late getting to us. We pre-ordered it online the night before and their system was messed up this morning so it took longer than expected to get to us. Although, I don't think any of the kids noticed. Once it did finally show up, we tried to pull the kids away to eat. I actually got Kenzie out and she took a slice of pizza from me before giving it back a few minutes later and telling me she just wanted to play. I found out later that she had been snacking some so that made it make sense, but she just wasn't having any pizza right then. Too much going on. Will, on the other hand, ate two pieces. We let all the kids play for a few more minutes after eating before pulling them all back out again for cake. Cake certainly brought everyone running. Haha! Again, Publix outdid themselves this year. This was a stock cake that they make, but it was perfect and everyone loved it.
Immediately upon finishing cake, the kids headed back towards the bounce house. People started filing out shortly after that. We ended up putting Will down for a nap because someone told me that he was starting to nod off in the kiddie pool. He went down almost immediately and we pulled Kenzie inside to change and open her gifts while some of the family and a couple of friends were still here.
She loved all of her gifts and she is so excited to play with some of the toys, do the crafts, put together puzzles, and everything else. She was trying to open everything tonight.
Everyone ended up leaving after that and we cleaned up a bit before waking Will up from his nap for Round 2. We headed back outside because we knew we had a few hours left with the bounce house and since it was quieter, we thought Kenzie would like some more time playing. We invited over the neighbors across the street with their little girl that is not much younger than Will. We thought she could play some too with it being calmer. Kenzie had a blast just standing on the slide and jumping into the pool. She did it so many times. She still hadn't slid down the slide again. She must have gone up the ladder 4 or 5 times before finally getting up the nerve to go down again. Then, we had a hard time stopping her. After about the 10th slide, we told her she could do one more and we were changing to eat dinner. She was exhausted at this point, but just didn't want to stop.
We did finally pull her (and Will) away. We changed their clothes for what seemed like the 80th time that day and settled in with the neighbors to polish off some more pizza. We still have 2 full pizzas left at this point. Haha! We have minimal other food left though so that is good.
Both kids practically fell into bed tonight. Kenzie was so tired that during dinner she was saying random things that we don't think she even knew what she was talking about. Or she would zone out and just stare at nothing. Wonder why she was so tired?? ;)
After all of that, I think this was certainly our best birthday party yet. I knew that as the years went on, I was going to have to slow down on my decorations and everything in favor of letting the kids have parties they want. I was a little sad about not doing as much this year initially, but I definitely didn't worry anything about that as soon as I saw Kenzie's little face this morning light up when she saw that bounce house. We could have just done that and ordered pizza... and it would have been the best party ever. I can't believe this little girl is officially 4. She is just growing up way too fast. Her smile and love of life are contagious. I can't believe we got so lucky. We are so blessed to be her mommy and daddy.
 |
| I always take a picture of her the morning of her birthday. Her first day being 4-years-old. |
Anyway, our decorations were much lower key than usual, but I loved the way everything turned out.
Both kids slept in quite late this morning. It was super nice. Kenzie was fully asleep until about 8:30 this morning. She woke up just in time to see her special surprise. The bounce house! She didn't know a thing about it. I'm so surprised that we kept it a secret this long. I carried her out of the house this morning and as soon as she saw it (not even inflated yet) she screeched, "A jump house!!!" She was stoked. Almost immediately upon its arrival, the girls from next door showed up. Apparently large blow up items attract a crowd. It was sort of like Field of Dreams. Or ants at a picnic. Either way, all the girls and Will stood outside and marveled at this thing. We stood outside and watched them inflate it for a bit before going inside while they finished. Once it was done, we had to take a trip inside to see how it was. It was awesome! We had to stop for a family selfie. Haha! Neither kid was even out of pjs yet. That's how you start a birthday morning!
This bounce house was amazing! It was a 4-in-1. It had a basketball hoop inside, you could jump, you could climb the ladder, and then slide down. The slide was a water slide. There was water pumped in on top of you and on the slide and you slid right into a pool at the bottom. I totally recommend one of these for a July birthday party. Kenzie immediately began asking me if she could put her swimsuit on. We made the kids eat breakfast first and then let them get dressed in suits. Then, she started asking for her sunblock so she could go play in the water. (I train these kids well...) I held her off until around 11am before just saying to go ahead.
Before too many people got there and it was still sort of quiet, she took a few trips down the water slide. She always went down feet first and on her tummy though. I think it was more to keep the water from shooting her in the face. And also, when you were sitting at the top of the slide, it seemed pretty steep. Plus, you moved pretty fast because of the water. Regardless, she loved it.
Once her friends began showing up, it was like watching a pinball machine. These kids were running and jumping and just circling. Into the bounce house, up the ladder, down the slide, repeat. For what seemed like hours. Will and a couple of the younger kids hung out in the kiddie pool with the water table and had a blast with that. It was definitely a good idea to have that out there for the little ones or even the older kids that needed a break from all the excitement of the bounce house. Kenzie didn't go down the slide again while her friends were around. We think sometimes she just gets a bit overwhelmed and she worries about getting hurt. Although, maybe she has a reason to worry.... One of the rules of the bounce house was that you weren't supposed to wear glasses in it. I did a bad mommy thing and let her take them in because I knew that would help her worry less about water in her eyes while going down the slide. It did, but I didn't remove them from her possession once she stopped going down the slide and she fell while jumping and they jabbed into her face leaving quite the shiner. Oops. Mommy fail! She recovered quickly though and it wasn't long before she was running around like a crazy person again.
 |
| This was the first picture post sunglasses-accident. |
Anyway, back to the actual party... Kenzie requested pizza for her birthday... Unfortunately, our pizza was late getting to us. We pre-ordered it online the night before and their system was messed up this morning so it took longer than expected to get to us. Although, I don't think any of the kids noticed. Once it did finally show up, we tried to pull the kids away to eat. I actually got Kenzie out and she took a slice of pizza from me before giving it back a few minutes later and telling me she just wanted to play. I found out later that she had been snacking some so that made it make sense, but she just wasn't having any pizza right then. Too much going on. Will, on the other hand, ate two pieces. We let all the kids play for a few more minutes after eating before pulling them all back out again for cake. Cake certainly brought everyone running. Haha! Again, Publix outdid themselves this year. This was a stock cake that they make, but it was perfect and everyone loved it.
Immediately upon finishing cake, the kids headed back towards the bounce house. People started filing out shortly after that. We ended up putting Will down for a nap because someone told me that he was starting to nod off in the kiddie pool. He went down almost immediately and we pulled Kenzie inside to change and open her gifts while some of the family and a couple of friends were still here.
She loved all of her gifts and she is so excited to play with some of the toys, do the crafts, put together puzzles, and everything else. She was trying to open everything tonight.
Everyone ended up leaving after that and we cleaned up a bit before waking Will up from his nap for Round 2. We headed back outside because we knew we had a few hours left with the bounce house and since it was quieter, we thought Kenzie would like some more time playing. We invited over the neighbors across the street with their little girl that is not much younger than Will. We thought she could play some too with it being calmer. Kenzie had a blast just standing on the slide and jumping into the pool. She did it so many times. She still hadn't slid down the slide again. She must have gone up the ladder 4 or 5 times before finally getting up the nerve to go down again. Then, we had a hard time stopping her. After about the 10th slide, we told her she could do one more and we were changing to eat dinner. She was exhausted at this point, but just didn't want to stop.
We did finally pull her (and Will) away. We changed their clothes for what seemed like the 80th time that day and settled in with the neighbors to polish off some more pizza. We still have 2 full pizzas left at this point. Haha! We have minimal other food left though so that is good.
Both kids practically fell into bed tonight. Kenzie was so tired that during dinner she was saying random things that we don't think she even knew what she was talking about. Or she would zone out and just stare at nothing. Wonder why she was so tired?? ;)
After all of that, I think this was certainly our best birthday party yet. I knew that as the years went on, I was going to have to slow down on my decorations and everything in favor of letting the kids have parties they want. I was a little sad about not doing as much this year initially, but I definitely didn't worry anything about that as soon as I saw Kenzie's little face this morning light up when she saw that bounce house. We could have just done that and ordered pizza... and it would have been the best party ever. I can't believe this little girl is officially 4. She is just growing up way too fast. Her smile and love of life are contagious. I can't believe we got so lucky. We are so blessed to be her mommy and daddy.
Comments
Post a Comment