The "FRIEND" Party

Along with turning 5, Kennedy also reached a major milestone for kids in our family -- the first "Friend" Birthday Party.  We were hoping she wouldn't realize this was an option and then maybe we could just hold off for one more year, but our Kennedy is quite the social butterfly (she's the child who plays with a new friend at the park for an hour and then laments for weeks the loss of their friendship after realizing they'll never see each other again.)  So she was EAGERLY awaiting inviting her friends over for a party.

Now, some moms really go "all-out" for their children's birthday parties. I started looking for ideas online and some of the blogs I read literally made me laugh so hard I cried -- there are some CRAZY Super-Moms out there who spend waaaaaaay too much time and money on a birthday party.  I love my children, but I have boundaries that I'd like to keep within the healthy realm.  I figured I had to at least put forth some effort (mostly for pictures to prove someday that I did try!), so this is what we came up with.

First we had to come up with a theme, and since Kennedy is our quintessential girly-girl, she opted for having a dress-up tea party for her birthday bash.  We invited a bunch of her darling friends over from Kennedy's pre-school and church class to celebrate with us, and it was great little girl fun -- lots of pink, purple, and pastels!

After we kicked out the men-folk, the little girls all arrived and got to decorate tiaras, color pictures of a frog with kissy-lips, and put on their very own take-home lipstick.  Once they were all doll-ed up with bright lips, they then got to play "kiss the lips on the frog-prince," which was our little spin on "pin the tail on the donkey."  The girls were each blind-folded and they each had to try to kiss as close as they could to the lips on their colored picture of a kissy-frog.  Lipstick + kissing a frog-prince on the wall?  Little girl heaven!

After the game, we were very excited to have a special guest come and read a FANCY story to the girls and help them learn all about manners. "Madam Marvelous" along with her helpful side-kick "Tommy Toad" (aka my dear friend Elizabeth and her son Ben) came to demonstrate the DO'S (Madam Marvelous) and DON'Ts (Tommy Toad) of etiquette - said with a fabulous French accent, of course.  The girls all loved it and laughed and giggled at all of the etiquette examples -- Tommy Toad was a great example of what not to do!  I am very lucky to have such wonderful (and talented) friends!

"Madam Marvelous" & "Tommy Toad"

Then the tea party portion of the party began.  The girls enjoyed drinking their "tea" (yummy raspberry lemonade), along with finger food heart-shaped sandwiches, fruit salad, & cupcakes.  I think all the girls' favorite part was actually being allowed to pour the "tea" themselves (I wish children were always this easy to please)!

So Kennedy had a great time at her party, and now we are very happy that we have another two years until we need to do something like this again!  I guess I'm just not cut out for being a Super-Mom yet!