Ella's 8th Birthday Party!

 Tonight I'm sitting on our couch lamenting the amount of sugar I've eaten, and totally in denial that tomorrow I'm going to have an 8 year-old daughter...Today we celebrated Ella's 8th birthday with our family!

Ella's birthday is at a fun time of year.  Typically the snow is melting and we're seeing the first signs that Winter will indeed end and Spring is coming!  Ah, so hopeful!

 

Ella's chosen different party themes in the past, but a garden theme seems to be a repeated favorite.  It's so perfect, and this year was one of those years! Although it was subtle, the party theme this year was "flower garden".

The menu:

pizza

berries

veggie platter

potato chips

juice & soda

(pretty much all the usuals)

I purchased these glass milk bottles at Michael's a few years ago for about $1 a piece.  They've been a good investment since I use them for most every birthday.  We also found these cute pinwheel straws at the Target dollar spot (can I still call it that?). 

Ella wanted vanilla cupcakes this year, and not the typical chocolate birthday cake.  I was a little disappointed since I love me a large slab of chocolate cake.  The nice thing was that these sweet rosette cupcakes were super simple.  Yay for not being up until 2 AM decorating cake!

She's such a sweet girl.  She's been so excited to have her birthday party!  It makes me happy to see her happy!

 

Following lunch, the children played outside.  Ella was blessed with another beautiful day for her birthday party.  Today it was sunny and 70 degrees...Not to bad for mid-March!

After expending some energy, which was mainly in the form of shooting each other with Nerf darts, they switched gears and painted terra cotta pots.

Each kid decorated their pot with lots of care and attention.

  

Then we ventured into new territory for us: the pinata!  I'm so thankful it was nice out and this was an outdoor activity.  I'm just hoping it isn't something that is requested often!

Birthday girl got to go first.

 

Our weapon of choice was an aluminum bat- it was effective.  The children had a little too much fun beating up the butterfly.

 

Evelyn didn't want to try at first, but then she was all in.  She was actually the first one to get some candy to fly.

 

We then went in birth order.  Candy kept trickling out and thankfully Nathan (the oldest) gave it the final blow.

 

Candy!   

Then for good measure, the children decided to continue to beat the poor butterfly.

 

Finally they were convinced that it was done and the candy was gone.

 

Next it was present time!

Addie gave Ella her gift first.  She crocheted her a ring and a toy for her Littlest Pet Shot. It wasn't super distinguishable-but it was sweet.

Here Ella is saying "Thank You".

 

I like that at every party people seem to congregate on the steps.  It helps add space to our living room!

 

Ella received lots of nice gifts besides Addie's.  She also received: a Little Pet Shop, Minions, a sticker book, bracelet craft, and a Boogie Board.

Only one thing left...cake!

 

Happy Birthday Ella!  

 It was such a treat to celebrate your special day! 

Little Mermaid: A Blanket DIY!

Thank you to everyone for your kind words of congratulations!  We are excited to welcome baby #5-but honestly didn't know how everyone would react.  We've only received love and kindness; not a single sarcastic remark or eye-roll.  We have the best friends and family!

I decided to post quickly about a recent (not as exciting) project the girls and I worked on. One Sunday afternoon, Addie and I were perusing Pinterest...great parenting I know.  But, she found a mermaid blanket and instantly fell in love with the idea.  I clicked the link to read through the tutorial, and it looked easy enough so we decided to go for it!

 

 

The next day was President's Day, so we ventured out to the fabric store, where Addie picked out the colors of fleece she would like to use (pink and teal...that's my girl!).

We started on it later that day, and after a couple of evenings remembering how to use my sewing machine working on it, it was complete!

The tutorial was super easy to follow, and the whole process only took a few hours.  

(The first time through I did have to watch the attached to video to understand one step, I also changed the length of the body by a couple of inches to customize it to fit Addie)

 

Addie was pleased with the end results and we all felt very accomplished to finish a project so quickly!

It's basically a fleece sleeping bag with a tail.  In fact I was thinking maybe they'd be good for camping when it's cooler.  They could get in these first before their sleeping bags to stay extra cozy.

 

But, this blanket is made for lounging and for pretend play...who doesn't want to be a mermaid, especially one that is warm and fuzzy?! 

You can see I made a second one.  For the second one I didn't even need to use the tutorial, it was that simple.  I had my pattern already cut out and I was able to make it in one evening over about 2 hours. 

If you're interested, I spent about $15 to make the first blanket.  This also included coordinated colored thread for the tail fin.  For the second blanket I spent just under $10.  Thankfully fleece is on sale this time of year, but I think it's on sale quite a bit.

It's not pictured, but Ella actually worked beside me and made one for her "American Girl" doll.  Even with her imperfect cutting and sewing, it still turned out well.  She could just use scraps, so her cost was $0!

The second mermaid blanket wasn't for Ella though.  The girls together chose the colors, and we made one for my niece who was turning 8!

So, if you're needing a simple sewing project that daughters of all ages will love...here you go! 

(The tutorial does also include photos in case you want to make a shark for a boy.  My boy wasn't interested though).