Elliott Is Five!

Ever since Abbey's birthday at the end of February, Elliott was anxiously awaiting her own special day. We counted down the weeks through March and April and a couple of times she was almost in tears, she just couldn't wait anymore! Finally May arrived and the countdown was in days. I think Elliott would agree her birthday was worth the wait- she had a lot of fun and felt very special and celebrated. 

The Birthday Girl with her new doll, Evelyn

Enjoying cupcakes at home

Abbey, Nana and Elliott ready to open presents (We got to celebrate with Nana and Les the weekend before her birthday)

Les, Elliott and Chad are ready for cake! 

Another reason Elliott was so excited for her birthday this year was she would be able to bring a treat for her class that day. (Last year her preschool did not allow that.) She went back and forth about if they should have cupcakes or donuts, but in the end traditional (and yummy) cupcakes won out. 

When I came in with the treats, the kids had a hard time staying on their "dots" on the rug!

Elliott passed out cupcakes to all 21 of her classmates, and then sat down to enjoy hers- complete with orange (her new favorite color) frosting.

Last year, we did not have birthday parties for either girl since we were preparing to move or in the middle of unpacking. This year they were both ready to party! And apparently I raised the bar too high with Abbey's Safari Party, because Elliott had all kinds of ideas for her celebration. At first she wanted a "bunny party." She even had some ideas for games and treats. She was most disappointed to find that there were no bunny themed invitations available at Target the day (and I mean the absolute last day) before the invitations needed to be passed out. I tried to assure her they didn't have to be the same, but she wasn't having it. She saw some pretty butterfly cards and suddenly we had a theme! 
Both girls had fun helping to get things ready for the party. They made these butterflies out of white coffee filters and pipe cleaners (decorated with markers and then misted with water to get that tie-dye effect) and we hung them over the table. 

With the blinds in the background, it looks like attack of the huge butterflies!

The colorful fruit tray met Elliott's exacting specifications, though she was less thrilled with the look of the crackers and chips platter. 

After creating some tie-dye butterflies and some (stick-on) jewel butterflies, we played some games. First, Musical Flowers. I guess Musical Chairs is not that popular of a game anymore, because the girls were a little confused, and they certainly weren't about to knock their friends over to get on a flower! (We also had this problem with a similar game at Abbey's 6th birthday party.) But in the end, they figured it out and it came down to Abbey and our friend Abby. I don't remember who won but it was fun to watch!

Abbey and Abby run it out

Then the girls used their pretty butterflies to play Pin the Butterfly on the Flower. They were pretty funny walking blind-folded after being spun around, but they were sweet and helped each other get their butterfly in place. They really enjoyed putting the blind fold on me and spinning me around!

Good job Elliott!

And of course there were more cupcakes. These had (you guessed it) butterflies on top that I made out of a gummy worm and a fruit slice shaped candy cut in half for the wings. That is the extent of my craftiness! After the non-rising cake debacle at Abbey's party, I was planning to just get a bakery cake. But after paying for the cupcakes for her class, I decided sticking on gummy worms was do-able, and they actually turned out pretty cute. Elliott was happy with them! Later she told me, like Charlie says to Lola in one of her favorite books, It was a REALLY good party. :0)

My sweet, smart, beautiful, happy FIVE YEAR OLD! 

Happy birthday Elliott!