Happy Birthday, Allie!

On Wednesday, Allie came home from school to her new sandbox for her birthday. Yes, we bought her some sand. It's actually way more exciting than it sounds. (But surprisingly, NOT exciting to clean out of hair every night.)

Cupcakes to school and a cake for her party on Saturday, meant that for her birthday candles on Wednesday, we didn't want cake. So, Allie got to blow out the candles on her birthday cookies and color a picture of what her cake for her party should look like. She already told me that it should be purple, with a pink flower in the center and hearts around it. So, imagine my surprise when she drew up an elaborate multi-layer thing, bigger bottom layers, smaller top layers, just like in the cartoons. The top layer had flowers on the side, the next layer down had dinosaurs (for the boys), then ballerinas, then dogs, and the bottom layers are still not finished.

The Invitations: A Garden PartyWe folded the petals in to form a circular invitation.They open to become the full flower and reveal the party details. Allie and I drew up a couple different versions before deciding on this one.
This is the petals all folded in. We wrote the "invitee's" name on the outside petal.

On the back of the "center" we wrote a celebration version of the "Roses are Red" poem
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Allie is turning six
And wants to celebrate with you!

Party details are in the center. "Join Me In The Garden" We were going to write it right onto the pink flower center, but the 'roses are red' poem bled through just enough that we didn't want to fuss with it. We used some paper that looks like hand pressed flowers to create a new center.

The Food: Simple and Fresh

PB&J sandwiches were shaped as butterflies; PB&H sandwiches were tulips.

The Cake

Allie actually directed all aspects of the design.

The Games

1. Painting the Pots

Since they had to dry, we decided to paint them first and let them dry while we partied. Some of the girls used the stencils, but mostly, they freehanded their beautiful creations.

2. Food, cake, and presents.
Allie and Aimee made most of these tissue paper flowers earlier in the week for the centerpiece.

3. Stick-The-Bug-On-The-Flower: The game Allie actually wanted play BEFORE the food. The garden party version of "Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey." I drew the flowers on poster board and printed off the bugs. (The children really did a much better job of clustering the bugs around the flower; I moved them all, except the lizard, for picture purposes. The lizard was actually Allie's piece. It was positioned first and this is exactly where she placed it. I thought it looked great!)

4. Garden Bingo

5. Planting the Flowers.

6. Jumping This was actually what Allie wanted to be a long jump game. But, I forgot about this game in the preparation, so she improvised and used sand tools for the lily pads that she had wanted. Then, it evolved into jumping through the hoop.

The Friends

Thank you for celebrating with us. Sarah, Paris, Grace, Jenna, Allie, Aimee, Maria, Jett, Alex, Aidan (looking totally "safe" with a balloon on his face.) (Tiana is not in this end-of-party pic because she had to leave early. We're happy that she came for a while!)

Deal With The Devil

Devil...aka...daughter.

What do I gain...nothing really.

Honestly, I really don't want to go hang out at Hot Topic all night for the release party--Twilight on DVD in case you live in the normal world, rather than the Twilight-fan world. Mostly because of the drive home afterward. If it were 20 minutes away, I would be much more enthusiastic.
Well, thinking that I clearly had the upper hand in this deal, I told Aimee we'd go if she finished the book tonight before the party. This was truly a sound bargain. I would never have dreamed of bargaining with book reading with Alex, as he read Eragon in 9 hours when he was in 5th grade, but Aimee is not as book determined. While she WAS immediately taken by Twilight**, she still is Aimee. She's distracted easily and simply cannot keep her body still enough to read a book in one sitting. My deal was golden!

**Aimee didn't think Twilight sounded that great. But once she saw previews for the film, she picked up the book. She still didn't read it super fast, and actually read some smaller, quicker books in between. But, since she wanted to read the book before watching the movie, and wanted to watch the movie the opening weekend, she picked it back up. (Naturally, I thought that would happen again.) She finished the book, loved it. Watch the movie, loved it. Bought a Twilight shirt, Twilight posters, bracelets, and a "Complete Illustrated Movie Companion" with her babysitting money.
Aimee also read New Moon for a book report, but gave up on Eclipse, because it "wasn't as fun as the other books." Totally cool with me, since I hoped she'd wait a couple more years before continuing the series.
Still, she wants the DVD at midnight and wants to have a Twilight Party to watch it with her friends.**

Yeah, I'm gonna have to sneak it away because since those words left my mouth, her eyes have been glued. She had a hot pocket for lunch because she "could make it without looking away from the book." She is leaving the room whenever anything slightly distracting occurs, and she is gobbling the words more excitedly than she did the first time through.

So, today, I have been listening to her read aloud all the "foreshadowing" and funny quotes that she is apparently enjoying more the second time through.
"It's not like anyone was going to bite me."
"It was ridiculous, and egotistical, to think that I could affect anyone that strongly. It was impossible. And yet I couldn’t stop worrying that it was true."
"If I was being honest with myself, I knew I was eager to get to school because I would see Edward Cullen. And that was very, very stupid."
"I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly." Although, she did remember that this was in the wrong place in the movie version. :)
"He looks at you like you're something to eat."

She has really been wanting to watch Harry Potter 3 lately, but since mom and dad keep insisting it is inappropriate for Allie, she hasn't been able to turn it on. Right now, Allie is at her friends house, and I'm tempted to turn on The Prisoner of Azkaban. It all depends on how much I think I want to listen to Hot Topic music for 2+ hours tonight.

At her current rate of reading, according to Alex's calculations, she will be finished an hour before she needs to be.