Katy's 5th Birthday

I can't believe my baby turned 5! Since we were celebrating the milestone anniversary on her birthday we moved the party back a week. Indeed she did not notice a bit and was extra excited to have yet another party to attend! Every year I want to be the pinterest mom, with all kinds of cute ideas for a Birthday Party To Remember. And yet, I am just a regular mom. In fact, I'm really ok with that. Occasionally I can pull out the big guns but sometimes you have to roll with it. This year's 'roll with it' party was at Kiddywampus, a local arts and crafts store (and more) for kids. 

We chose the Action Jackson party. I'm pretty sure they didn't know what they were getting into when Katy and her friends showed up :-) We had a short introduction to Jackson Pollack and his artwork (so cool that they do that!) and had some rules and regulations to follow. Then to get warmed up the kids did some tissue paper art to take home. Meanwhile, I had my fellow moms (God love you ladies, you save me yet again) running to the grocery store around the corner for plates, napkins, utensils and drinks because I just did not think of that at any point in the planning. At least I showed up with the cake and cupcakes and ordered the pizza!

After the tissue paper art project was done it was time for the big deal. Out came the giant shirts and big socks. Each lucky kid got to do two paintings, throwing that paint all over the wall. What fun! I could have used some paint throwing time myself I think. Surprisingly, there was very little paint on the kids at the end.

Then it was on to pizza, of which Katy only ate the green olives off the top. That's my girl, so silly!

And finally, the cake of Katy's dreams. Purple, round, banilla with minions on top. Cupcakes were added because I thought they'd be easier for the kids to eat and I wasn't sure we had enough cake. hmm. It's a lot of cake. But it was darn tasty! Thanks to The Cake Box Bakery, which wasn't very close to us but they were available and had minion figures on hand. Happy Birthday song was sung, fingers and faces turned purple and then we cleaned up for yet another project. This time it was molding clay bugs, or rather molding clay shapes, some with eyes, some without. Finally it was time to clean up and we ran out of there. Seriously, I felt like I was on a conveyor belt the whole hour and a half. We chose to cut out the present opening (not my favorite part, truthfully) and open them at Nana and Grandpa's house the next day. It's a whole lot of sensory overload to pile in a short period of time.

The birthday girl was overjoyed, but not so much that she couldn't stop and enjoy the party. I call that a win. Who needs pinterest with this girl, we can make our own fun wherever we go. Maybe next year we'll do something at home but if I had my choice I'd do this kind of party again for sure. Only I'll remember all of the supplies ahead of time :-)