Alex' 5th Birthday: the party

The girls are so excited waiting for their guests to arrive :)

I'm putting the finishing touches on decorations

We invited 8 children to the party, thinking that only 4 or 5 would show up. But we must have some pretty great friends because not only did every single kid come, but they RSVP'd, too!!! With Alex and Rory, that was ten children. Dave and I were so grateful for two considerate, loving friends, Randalynn and Cassie, who stayed to help in the bustle of party fun.

Nine little girls all decided to dress up as princesses, and Alex' good friend, Eric (a.k.a. Prince Eric) came as a pirate. That was pretty exciting and the girls were thrilled. Here they are making their princess wands... and one Thomas wand.

Lining up to go outside for the princess castle pinata.

Every child took a turn hitting the pinata... I don't think it was a normal pinata... it had reinforcements or a magic unbreakable enchantment placed on it of some kind. I love this picture because you can see how excited the children were about the pinata... they were cheering the hitter on. Here you can see Alex really giving out a big cheer to Rory to break the pinata so they can get the candy! That pinata was pretty hard to break open :)

Rory was interesting to watch throughout Alex' birthday festivities. Her face is so expressive and readable... sometimes she was delighted and in awe...

Sometimes she wondered why SHE didn't get that...

But in the end she triumphed over her struggles and loved her sister anyway :)

and it turned out to be a pretty darned good party after all, even if it wasn't her birthday :D

.... and the suckers helped.

We had a cupcake bar of sorts with four different colors of frosting, princess sprinkles of all kinds, and more frosting in tubes.

Alex blew out her candle after everyone sang "Happy Birthday".

They loved the loud noise-makers

They played Duck Duck Goose and then opened presents.

This is actually Rory chasing her prince Eric, I mean Captain Eric, and he was kind enough to pretend he couldn't catch her.

The gift giving at this age was absolutely priceless to watch. Every child was so excited about their present being opened. They were each delighted when they could see everyone was impressed with their gift. I must say, Alex came away like a bandit from this party! She had so much fun, and it was great being able to see her celebrate with darling little friends.