Birthday Girl Festivities

Berlin had a friend party this weekend. When she woke up on the morning of, she had an early present waiting for her. Inside was a new mermaid dress & shoes. She had been begging me to make her one for the party, but I just didn't have time. Needless to say, she was giddy ... and she's worn the shoes every day since then. They are her new favorite.

 

She wanted an Ariel party, but we (mostly I) decided to forgo all references to Disney's Ariel and went with a generic mermaid party. I kept the decor pretty simple, just shells & sand dollars in the apothecary jars. And then I made these cute strands of paper circles to hang from the ceiling.

Each girl decorated a treasure bag, fished for treasures in the sea, played mermaid bingo, and ate lemon cupcakes & ice-cream. My AWESOME sister Val came to the party dressed as a mermaid. The girls loved it.


As each girl left they got a goodie bag and a mermaid headband with starfish & sand dollars on them.

It was such a fun day for Berlin and she had such a great time with all her little mermaid friends.

Later that night we took Berlin to dinner. She chose to go to the Spaghetti Factory. Leave it to us to try and go out to dinner the same night as all the High School Valentines Day dances.  I was bugged, but Berlin loved all the girls in their fancy dresses. Fortunately for us we got their early enough that we didn't have to wait too long.


On her actual birthday we awoke to squeals of delight. The night before, Ryan stayed up super late assembling a Barbie Doll-house that is HUGE. We were so tired that we didn't even see her reaction. We just heard, "Oh my gosh. OH MY GOSH!!!" as she saw this upon coming upstairs.

That night we had a small family dinner with our friend Amy. Berlin chose tacos for dinner. Then we had presents and soda floats. Apparently, after watching her unwrap 3 books, 1 coloring book, a leapster game, and a stationary set, he wasn't impressed with the amount of gifts she got. He must have been tallying up the total amount of gifts thinking ahead to his birthday because after she opened her few other presents he says (all bewildered), "That's it? That's all she got? That's not very much." Um, hello? Did you not see the big doll-house? Looks like I need to prep him for his bday because he might not be happy with the downsizing from last year when I went out-of-control on gifts.

 Aren't they just the cutest little boogers?

On Monday night we had our monthly FHE with Ryan's family where we celebrate the birthdays in that month. Berlin wanted cupcakes originally but I wasn't in the baking mood. So I convinced her to go with Rootbeer floats. Since candles don't do well in floats, she got to blow out candles on her Aunt Shannon's cake who also has a bday this month. Here she is in the hot-seat with Grandma Lynne.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!