Jorja's birthday par-tay

It has been a weekend of a lot of prep, a great birthday party, and a nice relaxing afternoon in the pool. I'll start with the prep...

Jorja's actual birthday was on Thursday, and it was just us. She opened her presents and thoroughly enjoyed the day. That night after the girls were in bed was when the real work began though. A while back Jorja had said she wanted a Tinkerbell birthday cake, so we thought a fairy party would be fun. Then I don't know what came over me. I started looking up ideas on the internet for party games, costumes, ideas. It was like I had this inner uber soccer mom inside of me. I came up with the idea that we should give them all wings and wands. Then after we had that bought, one little girl canceled so I came up with the idea that Julie could wear wings as well and be the queen fairy and bestow the wings on the little fairies in waiting. Julie kind of smiled and nodded the whole way along and went with it. I'm sure she thought I was crazy. Then as the day approached, she really got into it as well. She started looking stuff up too and came up with the idea to give them all pixie dust on their cheeks. She also created this special 'fairy chair' for the girls to sit in and take their pictures. I looked on the Disney fairy website, and found this game where you create a fairy. Then it gives you a name for your new fairy, so we took down a bunch of different names, and decided to give all the girls a fairy name as well. Then we had to organize the craft, put together the loot bags, Julie had to make and decorate the cake. It was almost two in the morning Thursday when we went to bed. Friday was a bit earlier, bit still busy. I've said once before that my coworker at the brewery would be proud of me, but I think she really would be this time. I used to sit in marvel at the birthday party stories she would tell, but once you get into it, it just seems to consume you. Maybe I've been off work for a while and needed a good project, I don't know, but I think we set the bar kind of high.

The day of the party finally arrived, and Julie got into costume. She talked me into it as well, so I became the king fairy for the afternoon. Julie was Queen Marigold Sparkle and I was King Nimble Thistle. It was actually a lot of fun.

Yes, those are fake leaves on my hat. The covered up the Great Western logo and I thought they added a lot to the Pixie Hollow mood. Julie had all the girls sit on the floor around her as she made them all into fairies. They received their wings, wands, pixie dust on their cheeks as well as their own fairy name. You could have heard a pin drop, they were so into it and in awe as Julie was making each of them fairies. It was pretty cool.

After they were done that part, we went upstairs and did a craft. They each got to decorate their own pair of flip-flops. Then it was back downstairs for a Tinkerbell variation of pin the tail on the donkey and a little bit of freeze dance. They really enjoyed the dancing. Julie was dancing with them at the start, and I was manning the controls. Then we switched it up. I showed them all some moves from the eighties (the classic side to side shuffle with a finger snap) which they all tried to imitate. Then I picked Ginny up to dance with her for a bit, and soon I was getting all kinds of requests for dances. For obvious legal reasons, and well as my back holding up reasons, I opted not to pick any of them up. I did get down on my knees and dance with each of them for a bit though, most of them twice. I've never felt so popular. *sigh*

Next it was time for the cake. Looking back on this picture, I'm amazed Jorja didn't light her hair on fire. Yikes. Julie did an awesome job on the cake though. Lastly, Jorja opened her presents, and posed for a picture with each of her friends. Notice the special fairy chair.

By the time parents started coming, we were exhausted, drained, spent. It was an intense two hours. The girls all had a blast though, so it was worth it. Everyone was in bed early.

It was gorgeous out today, so we all went in the pool for a bit. It was pretty cold at the start, but I did get used to it, and it was a lot of fun. Ginny was so cute, she spent most of the afternoon just laying back and relaxing on this floating lounger we have. I'm not sure what this week will bring, but hopefully a little more sleep. Later.