Abbey's Wild Birthday Party

Abbey has been looking forward to having a birthday party ever since last year, when she didn't have a birthday party. (We were getting ready to move last year and I just couldn't do a party. Instead we had a fun day out with one of her friends.) She decided on the theme of Safari Animals. Now, I think it's great that my 8 year old girl loves wild animals, and that she wants to have that as her theme and not, say I ♥ Justin Bieber. But let me tell you, it's tricky to find safari themed party stuff that doesn't look like it's for 3 year old boys or bachelorette parties. Fortunately Abbey was glad to help make some of the decorations, like this sign for the front door:

"Abbey's Party- Safari Central- Theme: Safari Animals" 

She's very thorough. 

We decorated with some zebra stripe and pink leopard spot streamers. Thank you Party City!

This is my "I don't like decorating!" smile. You can also see this smile every December when we put up our Christmas tree.

Between the kitchen and the living room. The girls loved running through these streamers!

Oh the birthday cake. One of these days I will just give up and order one but I hate to spend that much money on a grocery store cake that isn't going to be that great, and a really cool custom cake is so expensive! I thought I had it figured out. I was going to make a cake with "zebra stripes" on the inside. If you have never seen a cake like this, look HERE. It was pretty simple, although time consuming, since I ended up with 3 different colors of batter in two pans. I followed all the directions and it looked just right when it went into the oven. Then.. THE CAKE DIDN'T RISE. At all. It came out of the oven as flat as it went it. I think the recipe really shouldn't have said it would make 2 layers, but it did, and I believed it. Since the cake didn't rise, you couldn't see the zebra stripes inside, it looked more like pink and brown camouflage. Thankfully, after much discussion, Abbey decided she was okay with the inside of the cake as long as the outside was covered with chocolate frosting and safari animals. 

Ta-Da!

Eight candles- wow!

(Please notice her cute zebra shirt and the pink-and-zebra tablecloth. I was not in charge of the camera during the party so there are no other pictures of the decorations.)

Abbey was thrilled that five of her friends could join us. (I was thrilled that they all RSVP'ed!) Elliott did so well keeping up with the older girls and not getting upset or frustrated- she was just so happy to be with them. The girls went on a Safari (scavenger hunt) where they solved clues and ran all over the house and yard. They also decorated these cheetah and zebra masks. 

Rarrrrrrr! 

(The giant stuffed giraffe belongs to one of Abbey's friends.)

She got some fun presents from her sweet friends and they they ran upstairs to play dress up. Overall, it was a great, WILD day!