We decided this year to celebrate with family, so that meant traveling to Washington state. We've always lived so far away from grandparents, that this was the first time that any of them could be at one of Ella's birthdays.
Poubelle (Ella's nickname) decided that she wanted a halloween birthday party. I swear I didn't influence her decicion all that much, really. She's just that cool. I had a BLAST making all the "stuff " that went with the birthday theme.
The invites were fun. I made 4 or 5 different kinds and Ell picked this one. Black glitter gets EVERYWHERE, but I think it made them perfect.
Then i decided to make some "party hat"type doohickies. Think....flapper headbands.
She's going to hate that I put a pic of her up.
These are the party favors. I stole the idea from a Martha Halloween craft, and then I filled them with spooky stuff and candy. Spooky stuff is kinda hard to find in May.
I had a bunch of games for the kids. This one was making Slime out of glue and Borax. I was really surprised how well the kids waited and took turns. I fully expected to have them run off and play and that the parents would have to mix it all for them. They all stayed at the table the whole time and LOVED it. I made little stamped cellophane bags to put the slime in, but iI think I forgot to take any pics of them.
Notice Derek wearing a party hat too!
All the kids seemed to really like the apple bobbing. I thought it'd be a bust, but a lot of them had done it before and really got into it. I should've taken off the stems.
We did some other funs stuff too. We had a pin the tail on the spooky cat, Wrap your Mommy Like a Mummy (tp) and i had some test tubes with juices in them so they could play Mad Scientist with their drinks.
This is the pumpkin cake she wanted so bad. There were supposed to be ghosts fllying out of the top, but i just made white chocolate dipped cookie ghosts around the edge instead. I was getting pretty "done" by the time i made the cake. My mom had a round cake pan that has an insert for an ice cream filling. It made the whole round cake making so much easier than trying to do it in bowls. Heather took this pic. I always get so busy and forget to take pics, but thankfully Heather is happiest behind a camera.
I was on the ball for once and made thank you's, AND i actually got them in the mail. I rock. Ella "helped" me make themwith her cool stamp set that she got for her birthday. THey're all little paper doll type body parts to make up people.
We had a great time. It was a lot of work to do it all and then drive up there (I live in San Jose now), but it was worth it and everyone seemed to be happy to make the effort. My mom hosted it in her backyard. Our freinds Heather and dave drove twice as long as i did to get there and be with us. They haven't missed any of Ella's bday partys since they met her. John had been on business trips back to back for a while, so he took vacation days to be there for a week, and flew out from Washington to go on even more business trips. It was actually a really nice vacation. Happy Birthday Poubelle!
