Bella's Sixth Birthday Celebrations

It seems like we spend 11 months out of the year talking and planning Bella's parties and then we spend a month counting down and preparing for them. This year this was the case even more so. It drives us crazy at times. Anyway, we decided on a glow party theme. I was worried about the time and if it would be dark enough but it turned out great. We had it at 6 and used blankets to black out the windows in the den. We had glow in the dark balloons, games and decorations. I got some glow in dark paint to make her banner and table runner and then used neon colors when glow in the dark wasn't possible. We attached glow sticks to hula hoops and those were the favors. We also had glow earrings, glasses and rings. We had bowling with water bottles and light up balls and a glow in the dark ring toss and even glow in the dark bubbles. The kids she invited ended up being a great group. We had pizza (of course), cupcakes and they made their own sundaes. Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures of the games but that room was pretty cool- mostly dark with lots of balloons and glow sticks!



The next day we went to McDonald's after church to celebrate her birthday with cousins and grandparents. She asks us every Sunday if we can go to McDonald's and we always say no way but this time it was her birthday choice! She got a lot great gifts that made her a very happy girl. They were mostly things for her American Girl doll, Julie. After that she requested that she and I go shopping for more stuff for Julie and so we did.



Later Randy and I realized that we were supposed to paint the rock at her school on Sunday rather than Monday evening like we thought- it turns out that you get two days not just one. Sooooooo since we had not planned ahead, we packed up all three kids and paint and headed to the school in the dark and well, we did the best we could. Looking back I would have done it very differently. We thought we may go fix the next day if need be but the floodgates opened up and that wasn't possible.



On her actual birthday, Tuesday, Ava, Porter and I ate lunch with her at school and brought donuts to share in the class. She was in heaven. That afternoon we went to my mom's and celebrated again with dinner, cookie cake and more presents (again for Julie!). She was one happy camper and kept saying this was the best birthday ever. And I am glad because I was WIPED and I don't want to have to do this again for a long time. Randy has already told her we aren't going to talk about her birthday again until next March and even suggested that we go to the beach next year and skip the parties! She is not amused.