This year, Savannah’s birthday fell on a Sunday, so it worked on nicely to be able to have her party a day early on Saturday (April 28th). When Brooklyn turned three, I put a lot of effort into decorating/games/food since it was the first birthday party we’d invited her friends to. Cue the mommy guilt. I’m realizing that I just don’t have the time or energy to go all out for parties like I did for the first couple of years with Brooklyn. Hopefully Savannah and Abigail will forgive me :)
Anyway, I still wanted to do some sort of fun theme for Savannah’s party but definitely keep it simple. I found an idea online for a bubble party, and I thought that sounded easy and fun. I didn’t do any decorating, but I did order some themed invitations on Etsy:
Savannah’s favorite colors right now are probably blue and purple, so I thought this invitation was perfect for her!
Rather than provide a bunch of small bubble containers for the kids to blow (and spill everywhere), I thought it might be nice to use a bubble machine for the party instead. We found this one on Amazon, and it worked well. It definitely puts out a lot of bubbles! Travis got back to the house from going to pick up pizza, and he said he could see bubbles floating everywhere above our house…haha!
Paw, Rae Rae, and Cici all got to our house a little early. While Rae Rae and Cici helped me get the food ready, Paw played with the girls in the playroom. It never looks this neat, but we cleaned it prior to the party :)
Before too long, everyone else started to arrive. Guests included Baugay, the Loveless crew, the Hoods, and Vera and Sarah Childs. It was a small crowd compared to how many we actually invited, but that’s okay. We had great weather, and the kids seemed to have fun.
So many bubbles!
We kept the food simple by ordering pizza and having chips and fruit for sides. Kid friendly, for sure!
Carter has loved that little play camera since he was a baby. He seems to always find it when he comes to our house :)
After pizza and a little play time, we let the birthday girl open her gifts. I was surprised that she actually smiled and looked right at the camera…that almost never happens!
She’s getting to be such a big girl!
Sweet friends…
Oh Pookie. It took her FOREVER to open the first present. It was so funny. She just has no concept of how long she takes to do things, whether it’s washing her hands, picking out a story before bedtime, or opening gifts.
I quickly realized that it would probably take her an hour to open everything by herself, so we convinced her to let Paw help her/speed up the process :)
Savannah got several new packages of Play-doh, which are always a hit.
Showing off her new Sleeping Beauty book from Aunt Alisha and Uncle Tyler…
…and a new Sleeping Beauty plush doll. Carter looks excited about it!
I love how the kids are watching so intently…
They were also taking turns pretending to take pictures of Savannah opening gifts…haha
Other gifts included a new bike helmet, paper rolls for the art table, several princess dresses, princess crowns, a Belle plush doll, Tangled, and probably a few other things that I’m forgetting at the moment. It was quite the haul!
After Savannah finished opening her gifts, it was time to sing happy birthday and eat cake.
I think Savannah was worried that Gabriel was going to get the first piece…haha
I made the cake in 2 bundt pans, and then cut out a section from each and put them together in the shape of a “3”. It was super easy!
Happy birthday, sweet girl!
She did pretty good at blowing out her candles. Last year she was scared of the lit candles, so this was definitely progress :)
Good to the last crumb!
Brooklyn was so excited that Nathan could come to the party. They are such sweet friends.
Everyone played and hung out for a few more minutes before we wrapped things up. One thing we learned about hosting parties at our new house: on sunny days, it is REALLY bright in the backyard with all that concrete. One day when we replace that white concrete with grass, it won’t be quite so bad, but for now we may need to schedule outdoor parties in the evenings when the sun isn’t shining directly back there. Lesson learned the hard way!
I did set up a little table of favors–that was about the only trouble I went to for this party :)
Bubbles and lolli-POPS!
And several flavors of popcorn from What’s Poppin’
Overall, it was a fun morning! Savannah was pretty tired because she’d had a big day the day before (she went to Big Spring Park and out to eat for lunch with the Lovelesses, and then she went strawberry picking that afternoon and spent the night at Cici’s house). I think she enjoyed the party, but she definitely wasn’t feeling overly energetic or social. At the end of the party, everyone was getting ready to leave, and we figured out that Savannah had disappeared. She was upstairs playing by herself in the playroom…haha. She definitely doesn’t thrive on being the center of attention. We had to coax her to come down and thank everyone for coming :) She told me afterward that her favorite part about her party was “eating birthday cake”. And she’ prayed “Thank you for the cake. Thank you for the candles” in her prayers for quite a while in the days that followed. Even now (a few months later), she will occasionally thank God for birthday cake and candles…haha.
It’s okay, Pookie…I’m pretty thankful for chocolate cake too!
