Ellie's Birthday Party!

 It's only half a year late, but here goes...

We had a party for Ellie's 3rd Birthday this year.  It was her first party with friends and she was so excited.  I woke up so sick, but Grandma and Grandpa Huntington came the night before and helped me pull it all off.  I figured...I planned it well and bought everything in advance.  I just didn't plan on being so sick.  It was so hard and stressful, but turned out great in the end.  Grandma and Grandpa took over the giant waterbed thing we made, bless them, it turned out to be quite the project.  (If you ever intend to attempt this project, don't do what pinterest says.  Spend the money on the thicker plastic and it will actualy do what its supposed to!  It was pretty sad to me that the plastic tore so quickly after all the effort to make it.  It was still a neat sensory thing, but not as cool as it would've been with thicker plastic.)

In true Laramie fashion, it was gorgeous the day before and on the day of the party...wind.  In Laramie you accept the wind, it's just part of your life.  But it really was a bummer that it made it so cold that day when we were playing in water.  The kids didn't hardly want to touch the waterbedsa  The dollar store water shooters turned out to be a great hit and really saved the "activity".

Next the kids took turns poking the water balloon pinata.  This was hard for the younger kids including Ellie.  She was so distracted by all the attention that she wasn't even really looking at the pinata while she poked, as you will see in the following pics.  It was hilarious.  The kids really liked it still.

Oh this cake.  It looks beautiful, but was obnoxious.  I tried making a yummy cake from scratch the night before, and of course, as things weren't going my way that weekend, it fell.  I was so bummed cuz it tasted really good.  On to plan B.  We bought an angel food cake the morning of, and I used my yummy Swiss Meringue frosting and homemade lemon curd and raspberries to whip this up.  It was so fun to assemble, and came together sooo fast.  It tasted good too.

Ellie was so excited about the cake and having people sing to her.  And then midway through the song, she got all bashful and blushing.  It was so funny.

And then she blew them all out!

 Before the cake, we served the kids PB sandwiches, watermelon, carrots and sugar peas.  It was yummy.

As you can tell, the weather really changed over the course of the party.  After the water balloon pinata, we pretty much stayed inside to eat our lunch and cake and presents.

After the party, we had some leftover balloons that Michael's parents and brother Matt and his wife Kaitlin put to good use with an old fashioned balloon toss.  It was really fun to watch.

Cute Newleyweds!

So in the end, we pulled it off and the kids had fun.  I slept hard that night, glad to not have that stress anymore.  For me, the roughest part was being so stuffed up in the head and having body aches, that I couldn't think straight or remember what I was doing half the time.  It was soooo frustrating while trying to get everything prepped to forget so often.  A huge THANKYOU to all who helped out.  You made Ellie's day so special.