Abby and Emily's Birthday Party

This year, Abby celebrated her 6th birthday just days after her good friend, Emily, celebrated her 5th birthday, so we had a combined birthday party on June 29th. It was a lot of fun.

First, Abby said she wanted a pinata. I looked at the ones in the store and even went to several Mexican markets to see what a "real" pinata looked like. They were all very different, and very expensive. So I made my own. I took a soda pop 12-pack box, an oatmeal canister, a pop tart box, and a fruit snacks box, and with some duck tape... voila! a unicorn appeared. Then I covered it with two layers of paper mache and then decorated it with tissue paper. It turned out extremely well! Abby and Emily loved it. I filled it with three pounds of candy, but at the party I learned that 15 children go through 3 pounds of candy in about 7.5 seconds! It took a few swings to finally break the pinata, but once it broke the children filled their bags (which they had decorated when they arrived) with as much candy as possible.

The finished Unicorn, with a doll along for the ride.



Megan breaks the pinata...

And the candy is rapidly snatched up by hordes of children.


Emily's mom, Jessica (my best friend), made the cake. It was sooo adorable! It was made of mini cupcakes in a rainbow, each row a separate color. Each cupcake had a letter to spell out "Happy Birthday Abby and Emily." It was the perfect cake, too, because children rarely each as much cake as they think they will at a party, so a tiny cupcake went down quickly and their cake craving was satisfied. Then we had ice cream cups, which were also perfect because there's no scooping on to plates and then ice cream sliding, melting and dripping off of plates!




From the left, Savanna, Abby, Emily, Caitlyn, and Shelby (and the back of Augie's head).






The highlight of Abby's birthday was her gift: a trampoline. We had saved for a while and put the trampoline on layaway, then I got Daddy up at 6:30 on the morning of her birthday to go assemble it for her surprise. By 7:30 the tramp was up, but the enclosure took another two hours and a lot of trouble to assemble. But at last, it was up. Abby woke up in the middle of the assembly and was looking for us, then saw out the dining room window her surprise. Daddy motioned for her to come out and she was thrilled! She had never doubted that ever since last fall when she decided to ask for the trampoline that she would get it for her birthday. Her faith was rewarded! The trampoline provided good party entertainment and shade for kids eating ice cream and cake!


Under the trampoline eating cake and ice cream in the shade: Emily, Savanna, Abby, Caitlyn.

I think Abby had a wonderful time. We are so happy so many of her friends came to celebrate with her and that the Deans let Emily celebrate with us, too. Abby now thinks she is a "big girl" since she is six.



Later that evening we had our family party where Abby opened her presents. She was thrilled to get "horsie cards," collectable Bella Sara cards with horses you play with online. She got coloring books, art pens, a fairy tale scrap book, a doggy purse, a pillow for her tooth (her first permanent tooth had come in but the baby tooth hasn't come out; the tooth is too far to the back to push it out). Here is a video of us singing happy birthday and Abby opening the first present.