Being 8 months pregnant, I was trying to think of an easy birthday theme that I could talk Taylor into for her party. But yet at the same time, a fun and memorable party that is a bit bigger of a deal than usual - since 5 is kind of a big deal! Normally she's really into something or a theme is kind of obvious, but I bet that will be harder as she gets older. And really, maybe we won't always need a theme.
After our Country Fair Adoption Fundraiser and all the cute details that went into it, I thought it would make for a super cute birthday theme! I found some great ideas online for it too.
She totally went for it - especially after attending the Country Fair we helped put on, and seeing how much fun it was.
Except one day she tried to change it to K-State theme.
I tried to explain we already did that theme for Mason - and wouldn't she rather have something he didn't do? But she wasn't going for it at first. I just gave her some more time to think and reminded her of the carnival games we could play - and she was back on track for the country fair.
I borrowed TONS of stuff we used for the fundraiser - making my job super easy and making the party look really great!
Jingles, the preschool class pet made it into lots of the pictures! We get to add pictures to the "Jingles notebook" to show what she and Jingles got to do together while he was home with her.
I'm pretty sure Jingles had quite the time.
Taylor has such sweet friends and we were so glad to have so many of them helping us celebrate her birthday!
This is the first time we've done back to back parties - friends and then family.
Which really just meant lots more barrel train rides!
These poor girls were absolutely miserable by the end of the party, no smiles, barely moving, and just laying on the couch. They both felt awful.
There was another birthday party in the neighborhood at some friends' house - so the kids at that party got to ride the barrel train too. And then Sunday after church all the neighborhood kids rode again.
I saw online that one country fair party had little mini cherry pies and I so wished I was a pie maker, but have actually never made a pie in my life.
But then I found a recipe for pies in jars!!! With 2 ingredients - already made pie dough and cherry pie filling. Easy enough! I had some smaller jars and some bigger ones - all which were supposedly half pint jars - but the smaller ones cooked much better. I probably needed to leave the bigger ones in for over double the time the recipe gave. But they were still pretty yummy.
She got such fun gifts and fortunately not an abundance of toys- God knows we don't need those.
A SUPER SUPER cute hat from Aunt Stefanie, Uncle Steve, and the cousins,
a diaper bag for her Bitty Baby from Papa and Nana - complete with cloth diapers, box of wipes and a changing pad.
She's absolutely in love with it and it came at the perfect time for mommy to start carrying a diaper bag too.
And a guitar from Papa and Mema. We are amazed at how much she has been sitting around strumming on this thing. Yesterday, Dave and Mason left for the store and she sat in the garage the whole time they were gone playing her guitar.
And boring things like new shoes and a booster seat from Mom and Dad.
I am so thankful for all the things I was able to borrow for this party - thanks to all the girls I got stuff from!
So our little girl is 5.
So hard to believe.
And now I think we're ready for another BIRTHday!!
Okay - not quite ready - we'd still like to get a few more things crossed off our to-do list,
but ready or not - our new little one will be here in about a month!
