Arin's Party

We celebrated Arin's 5th birthday several days early with a family party, which was so much fun!  Including us, there were 29 people in attendance.

The night before the party, the girls helped their daddy blow up several balloons.  It was Arin's request that we had lots of balloons. 

That night, the girls had a ton of fun playing with the balloons.  They enjoyed sitting in the big pile, tossing them around, and running after each other with the balloons. 

Who knew the adults at the party would find the balloons equally as fun as the kids did?  The grown-ups sat around and played a game of keep the balloons in the air.  There was so much laughter.  Lots of fun!

We had set up a family-sized blow-up pool and a baby-sized blow-up pool in the backyard, along with a slip and slide.  These kept the kids busy for several hours throughout the afternooon.

For lunch, we served take-out pizza, along with several other snacks.  I made deviled eggs, a platter with carrot, celery & ranch dressing dip, black olives, cream cheese and pepper jelly with crackers, tomatoes topped with mozzarella and fresh basil, strawberries, and cherries.

After we ate, Arin opened her presents.  She got lots of fun, new toys!

Next, it was time for Arin to give presents.  She gave each of the kids at her party a wrapped present, which also doubled as an activity.  We had ordered horse hats from Oriental Trading.  The kids assembled them.  They were a bit more challenging than expected, but they made for a good laugh.  Even the teenagers were good sports and got in on the fun!

Next, we moved the party to the front yard where all the kids got giant bubble blowers.  I've seen these bubble blowers all over the internet.  They look like so much fun, but unfortunately, our's did not work as great as the ones we see on other people's blogs.  I think it could have something to do with too many kids in too small of an area?  We gave the blowers to everyone, so hopefully they will try them again at home and have better luck with them.

Next, we enjoyed dessert.  I made three flavors of cupcakes - chocolate, strawberry and confetti.  Along with the cupcakes, we set up an ice cream sundae bar.  The bar included vanilla ice cream (of course!), whipped cream, chocolate, strawberry and caramel syrups, nuts, cherries, chocolate and rainbow sprinkles crushed Oreos, Mini Reese's Cups, Mini M&M's, jelly beans, and bananas. 

Arin had so much fun with her family.  She cried when it was time for them to go home.

And though completely unrelated, I thought I'd share a belly pic of me at twenty-six and a half weeks!  Almost to my third trimester :)