The Luau Party...

Yesterday morning all of the tables were set up, the tiki hut was built and the yard was ready to be decorated.  The good Lord blessed us with 80 degree weather for our Luau Birthday Party for my girls 7th birthday!

The party was AWESOME!  We had around 50 kids and around 70 adults!

I was thinking that maybe 2 hours was not going to be enough and I was right.  We should have had 3...but everyone had a great time and the kids swam, we did the limbo, they play with squirt guns, the works.
Then it came time to eat...here is what I knew...if we let the kids dish up their own plates we would be completely out of food. You know how kids work...they would see the fruit and think OMG, I love fruit, take 4 spoon fulls of fruit and then throw away 3 and a half spoonfuls of it. So we had an assembly line...one mom gave one bun with one plate, the next person put one hotdog on the bun, the next person put on spoonful of fruit salad, the next one gave one taquito, the next one gave one handful of chips, the next one gave a fork and a spoon. Vuala...just like that the kids were served. Now for the adults...we continued to serve the adults too because we didn't have enough food to feed more people than we had. We were not going to have left overs so if anyone took too much someone would not eat. Talk about cutting it close! Phew!

Well everyone was fed and it worked like a fine oiled machine.

We then decided we would do a group picture on the waterfall...thankfully I knew every kid that was there because I was having to instruct by name or this could have been very dangerous.  It turned out awesome!

So to rap it up...the only negative comment I had was a mom who said in a joking tone...the bad thing about you throwing parties like this is that our kids think they need this too. 

I can now throw myself into an overstuffed chair, take a deep sigh of relief and start the plans for next year.  LOL

Happy Sunday everyone!

My girls 7th Birthday...

So at 8:17am and 8:19am this morning, my precious babies were 7 years old!  My how the time flies.

I am thankful though that I don't feel like I have missed out on anything.  You see I was blessed to be a stay at home mom with them for the first 3 years of their lives.  All of their "firsts" I was there for.  Then I went back to work and they were in the on-site child care facility that was amazing on site of where I worked.  Once they turned 5 yrs old, I decided to start my own business and now work from home and have been home with them again for the last 2 years...thank you Jesus!  Why do I tell you this you ask...because I don't feel like it has gone too fast.  It's odd to think that my girls are 7...but it doesn't feel has though time as passed me by.  I have been there for it all. 

This morning was a lot of fun, we bought them new "birthday" dresses and curled their hair, put ribbon in their hair, glitter, etc.  You know, the typical birthday stuff. :)

On the way to school I was telling them how special they were and that God loved them extra well and that's why he gave them an identical twin sister and best friend to share their big day with.  They both agreed.

I told them that NOTHING will ruin our big day...Erynn said, "Unless someone kicks me mom."  Good point, but I told them that it would still not ruin our day cuz we wouldn't let it and you have to let something ruin your day in order for it to.

Then I said today is going to be a fun day...and Erynn said, "That's cuz you make it so special for us mom."  Here I go choking up even typing it.  I said thank you so much as I choked back the tears.  I thought to myself, "you can't cry for crying out loud...she'll never say anything like that to you again...stay calm, stay cool.  Phew it passed."  I was done with being choked up.

Then after I dropped them off I was coming back to prepare the cupcakes to take to the school for their classes.  They were all ready with frosting and sprinkles that the girls did last night...I just had to get them ready to transport...until.....I got home and noticed that over HALF of the cupcakes were missing.  My white boxer, Martini was outside.  The "rescue boxer" we have named Tyson, he was inside...he was the culprit.  You guys...he ate 12 of 20 cupcakes WITH the paper on them.  Needless to say, he is not going to feel well today.

So off to the store, I rush to have to find cupcakes...odd, 9am in the morning and the stores bakery don't have cupcakes yet???  How could that be.  I was off to the next store...again NO cupcakes.  They did however have mini cupcakes.  So I had to buy double of those and get to school.

The girls classmates were so excited and even more excited for the girls Luau Party on Saturday.  The good Lord is going to bless us with 75 degree weather.  Thank you Jesus!!

Tonight we are taking the girls to dinner and an I-MAX movie.  Should be totally fun!

I thank God every day for the blessings in my life.  How can one person be so lucky to have been blessed with two precious babies?

Going small on the birthday party...yeah right!

Party planning is a passion of mine...any excuse to have a party and I'll take it.  I have always thrown REALLY big birthday parties for my twins (I actually believe that is a reason that God gave me twins because throwing huge parties for one child would be considered "overboard".  LOL)  

This year we decided that we were not going to go "all out". 

That was a great thought...in theory...but how do you take a party planning crazy like me and make me go small...apparently it doesn't happen. 

So the birthday party is Saturday, May 1st and I just had their invitations printed and are delivering them this week to their friends at school, softball, church, etc.  The invitations did turn out cute...considering I have never used photoshop to make their invites before...BUT GET THIS...I made the invitations, sent them to the photo shop at the closest Costco to us...uploaded them via http://www.costco.com/ photo link...and they printed them out for 13 cents per invite!  WHAT????  We had 70 invitations made (cuz I'm going easy this year yeah right) and they were only $9.75.

Above is a look at what the invite looks like....(well with a few modifications of the address, etc. being it's on the internet at all)...I didn't find very much out there in cyber world as far as digital scrapbook kits for Hawaiian Themes or Luau Themes...But this was as good as I could do with what I had.  I created it in Photoshop and for all of you out there who are Photoshop Pro's...I am far from it.  This was my first.  I did create the header on my blog...but that was a little different than having to put it in a form that I could print off and still have it look good. 

So as much as I thought I was going to "go small"...apparently not.  The list is done and the invites are out...72 kids are invited, 41 adults...and that's not counting that I put on the invite that all the kids have to come with someone or have someone here watching them as we have a pool without a life guard.  So you have to double the 72...which turns to 144.  Now going off of the old...50% flake factor....we are going to figure that 144+41= 185 divided by 2 = around 36 adults and around 56 adults...so we're looking at a total of about 92 people...now that's if only half show up!!  LMAO

Well for a party planner...this is what it's all about...the kids, the fun, and the experience.  Why size it down anyway, right?

Can't wait to show you guys pictures from the party!

Any suggestions you have are greatly welcome!