Savannah’s birthday celebrations spanned a couple of weekends, so I thought I would summarize them here. First up was her big friend party! I had to wait on the soccer schedule to come out for the season to decide on a date for her party. Luckily, both games on April 23rd were early in the morning, which worked out perfectly for an afternoon party. Savannah decided on a baking theme for her party since she loves to bake and wants to be a baker one day!
I found this editable invitation on Etsy and thought it turned out really cute. We invited the girls in her class at school, 3 girls from the neighborhood, her friends from bible class, and her cousins, and we had a huge turnout. I think 18 of the 21 kids came that we invited…whew! I think the kids really had a lot of fun though. Savannah said it was even better than she thought it would be :)
Savannah made this welcome sign, and we taped it outside before the party started…
Ready for her guests to show up!
We had some crafts for the kids to do when they arrived (decorate a chef hat, create an ice cream cone out of foam stickers, decorate a wooden circle like a cookie), and the girls seemed to enjoy that.
Some of them really spent a lot of time crafting!
I am amazed when we have backyard parties like this that our swingset can entertain that many kids happily, but it does!
At about 2:30 pm, we put the craft stuff away and got the tables set up for sugar cookie decorating. Travis led the kids in a cookie cutter toss game while we got everything set up, and he said it kept them entertained for a few minutes at least.
Some enjoyed it more than others and got back in line a few times, like Chloe and Savannah ;)
It took a lot of helpers to set everything out!! It was a pretty breezy day, so we decided to set up the tables on the patio to be more protected from the wind. Cici had the idea to tape the pallets (that held the different kinds of sprinkles) down to the table so they wouldn’t blow away or get knocked over, and that worked really well.
The kids really seemed to enjoy the decorating. Each one got 3 cookies to decorate. I made the cookies, white frosting, and colored icings from scratch in the day or two leading up to the party. It was definitely a party with a lot of prep involved!
It was neat to see how the kids all decorated their cookies differently!
For having so many kids, everything went really smoothly (thanks to so many adults who were willing to help!).
One happy birthday girl!
Someone (I don’t remember who) had the genius idea to label the plates with the kids’ names, and then Alex, Melissa, and Cici helped package up their cookies in plastic bags to go home with them.
Felicity cracked us up when she dumped half a bottle of sprinkles all over her cookies and they filled up the plate…haha. Her mom just shook her head when she came to pick her up and heard what she’d done ;)
After everyone was finished decorating their cookies, we brought out the cake and sang happy birthday…
Savannah looked a little embarrassed to have that many people singing to her, but she handled the spotlight well ;)
She blew out all of her candles in one try!
I ordered a “sprinkle explosion cake” from Publix, and it turned out really cute. It came with tons of sprinkles inside as a surprise, which I thought would be perfect for a baking party. I’m no engineer though, so I didn’t think about the fact that a cake with a hole in the middle filled with sprinkles would start falling over once it was cut. Travis said it wasn’t structurally sound ;) Haha! It tasted good though. It was just really hard to cut.
After the kids ate cake, chips/goldfish, and fruit, Savannah opened her gifts…
The girls all swarmed and crowded around and oohed and ahhed over everything she opened. Some of them were even helping Savannah open her gifts and reading her cards to her…haha. The boys were mostly nowhere to be found during the gift opening. Funny how that works! ;) She got so many cute and fun gifts that she will really enjoy. I also loved that she got so many handmade cards from her friends…they were all very sweet.
It was such a fun party!!
After everyone went home, we started cleaning up the backyard. Travis got out the leaf blower and blew as many sprinkles as he could off the back patio….and then washed the rest off with the hose…haha. Much better for his sanity to have a baking party outside than inside ;) It was a great day!
Savannah’s actual birthday was on a Friday this year, and she had a great day at school. She said her class sang happy birthday to her 3 different times. The girls in her class drew her lots of pictures that she brought home in her backpack. Daddy asked her if they do that for everyone’s birthday, and she said no. She is very loved by her classmates, and that makes me happy. I surprised her in the cafeteria by coming to eat lunch with her. I brought her a big M&M cookie from Publix, and she ate about half of it before it was time to go. I enjoyed getting to visit with her at school.
Savannah opened one present before bed…a couple of things for her Samantha doll that we found on Ebay ;)
Paw and Rae Rae weren’t able to make it for the baking party, so they came on April 30th to celebrate with Savannah instead. She didn’t mind the extended celebration!
She was very excited to open her big gift from Mommy and Daddy–a blue two-wheeled scooter! She was also thrilled to get a few more American Girl doll things from Paw and Rae Rae.
Big deep breath before blowing out the candles!!
I think it took several breaths this time around to blow them all out ;)
Abigail always likes to hog Paw’s attention, and this time they played Don’t Break the Ice in her room :) We were glad they could come!
The fun thing about your birthday being at the end of the month is sometimes you get to celebrate during two separate months ;) On May 1st, Savannah got to pick out the menu for Sunday lunch at Cici’s and blow out one more candle on an ice cream sandwich…
It was a fun couple of weekends celebrating our favorite 7 year old!! Hard to believe she is growing up so fast!
