June Birthdays

Oops.
It's July already and I still haven't posted anything about Reagan and Jillie's birthday parties. Shame on me! So... while I should be cleaning and organizing (or sleeping) so I am prepared for the many guests that will be here starting on Friday for a 4th of July party and on through the entire next week... I will drop a quick (ha!) post about their fun days. {By the way we are very excited that we get to have family visiting all next week!!}

Reagan's birthday party "Luau" was the Saturday after her birthday.

{Reag with her cake and pinata...poor girl looks so exhausted. This was such a busy time with end of the year activities, great weather which encouraged late nights, but early mornings with school still on, and she was fighting a cold & not getting much rest when she did get to bed.}

She invited her 6 school BFFs and they all had a fun afternoon together. {BTW You may recognize most of the day's decorations... left overs from the Caribbean party my parent had for the kids while we were in USVI. Thanks for leaving them!} Reagan wanted a craft so we decorated foam visors to start out the party.

While the girls' visors were covered in dolphins, fish, etc...

Kobe's of course had to be more masculine and say "Indiana Jones".

Pizza lunch on the patio for everyone of course since that's usually what Reagan loves to eat!

Then everyone just swam and played outside the rest of the party until it was time for the pinata, presents, and cake.

{Jillie took some pictures with an underwater camera for fun.}

Speaking of the cake... it's been our tradition that the birthday kid designs their cake & I try to make it happen. So here's her design and mine...

Three weeks later we basically did it all again at Jillie's Pool Party. 12 year old parties are very different- and much easier on Mom! :) yea! We held the party on her actual birthday even though it was a Monday... the day before the last day of school. They had a "half day" which means they went to school at 8am, watched the movie Because of Winn Dixie and left school at 10:30am. Most of her 8 school BFFs came home on the bus with her (a couple forgot their bus passes so their moms had to drop them off after all). The girls just hung out listening to music and talking while I finished decorating and made lunch. Lunch was Jillie's favorite- sandwiches.

Then the girls just played outside and surprisingly spent a lot of time in the pool (it wasn't as hot of a day as Reagan's party.)

Jackson also provided a lot of entertainment for these girls as he danced to the music for them!:)

He also spent some time watching everyone in the pool from his post up in the playground.

These girls entertained themselves. They had a water balloon toss game that they did on their own. I didn't even have to make one water balloon! Oh, the freedom!

Jillie's "cake" was a big chocolate chip cookie. I made it the night before, but actually decorated it during the party. (That's a first!) She did give me a simple design though. Just a polka dot "J". No problem.

Another first was filling goodie bags during the party. I happened to find some cute mini bags in metallic colors at the dollar store that morning, but even though it was a last minute thing, I had plenty of time to do it. Towards the end of the party we gave them each a t-shirt to decorate with fabric markers. (I prefer the markers to the paint- less mess and really no drying time.)

After the girls left at 5pm, this is what I found in front of the TV. He had an exhausting day!

Finally we took Jillie out for her birthday dinner. (Greg was out of town and I didn't want to cook anyway.) She chose IHOP.

While Jillie liked her omelet, overall we decided the place is pretty awful and we'll not be returning! In the end though it turned out to be a great day and according to Jillie, "my BEST party ever!" Can't beat that.

Happy Birthday girls!