Such Devoted Sisters: It's My Party

Today was Rory's birthday party. She turns two on Monday, but as no one is in the partying mood on Mondays, we threw her a weekend party. This was the first time that she has had a party with other kids. Last year we just did a family party and she is the only kid in the family.

I was very excited about this party and tried to plan a fun day that she would remember or at least enjoy while it lasted. I picked a theme (Toy Story) and then surfed the blogs looking for ideas. Some people go CRAZY over kids parties!! I kept it simple. I love my husband and have no desire to be widowed this early in life, so keeping the budget under control was a must! We were hoping to have an outdoor party but mother nature did not cooperate, so instead we had a fun relaxing day inside.

Rory helped me bake the cupcakes a couple nights in advance.

She likes to help.

Last night I stayed up and decorated two dozen of these babies. I thought they turned out really well. And they tasted good too, which is also very important.

When Rory woke up this morning there were balloons all over the floor and a couple taped up in the kitchen.

Rory was so excited and chattered away all morning about her party, making sure I didn't forget it was coming. Her friends and their families arrived and the kids all played in Rory's new play room for a while. Then the games began. I kept things simple considering the kids were all in between 1 and 3 years old, and I, being the nursery leader in my ward, have a pretty good understanding of how short their attention spans can be. First we played pin the tail on the donkey, only in our version it was pin the facial part on the Mr. Potatoe Head.

And after we reorganized his face. Rory loves this guy. He is taped up in her playroom now. She has told me many times today how much she loves Mr. "totato ted".

After that, the kids were sent on a toy soldier hunt. Matt had hid toy soldiers all over the house and the kids all had to find them and collect them in their plastic cups. Rory was really good at this game. Maybe its because of all the practice she got at Easter time. The Easter bunny did visit her three separate times after all.

After the toy soldier game it was snack time. After snack, the kids all decorated their own treat bags. I gave each kid a paper bag, crayons and cut out colouring pages of all the toy story characters. The kids coloured pictures, glued them to their bags and decorated the bags with stickers. I then took the bags and filled them with dollar store goodies (water guns, bubbles, bouncy balls, crayons, candy etc.)

After that, it was present time. Rory got some really cute stuff. She got dishes and food for her new kitchen, side walk chalk, bubbles, a big bouncy ball, sand toys, dress up toys, a hamster toy, a princess doll, and a movie!