~My Baby is 10~

Friday was MonaLisa's 10th birthday. As most of you know I am a bit of an overachiever when it comes to parties. So, we started out by making these cute invitations:Since preschool, she's been taking cinnamon rolls for her class. Of course, her preschool class was much smaller and her classes gradually become more populated over the years. I ended up making them by myself because of our crazy week and I had to make two batches. I do make the dough in the breadmaker and that helps, but this time the second batch didn't mix all the flour in and I had to make a third one. Which means I was up until 4am. MonaLisa had an asthma doctor appointment at 8:15 am, so you can imagine my mood that morning.

After the appointment I took the kids and cinnamon rolls to school and then went home for a short nap. By the time the kids came home from school, there was some cleaning left (just don't look in our bedroom) and I had to finish the party favors. (Just a side note: I would rather give one nice thing than a hundred small things for party favors. For example, at her Care Bear party we gave Care Bears. So, I've given myself high expectations for the "goody bag.")

The guests arrived and they played for awhile then we had pizza. I found paper products that matched this napkin on clearance at Target (in June) and we decorated around them.

Then we gave the girls their goody bags. These cute cinch sacks (they're actually from Valentine's Day):

And inside we had put a pair of pajamas. As you can tell, it's all about horses at this age. I made the bottoms and sewed the appliques on the t-shirts. Since we invited less guests she had a higher budget per girl.

Here is MonaLisa modeling hers:
Then we had birthday cake. I almost didn't post this because I didn't have time to finish it. Notice the lack of hair.

And opened presents. She received this beautiful handmade afghan from her best friend:

After that, the girls all curled up in the living room and watched this:

I also found these cute popcorn cups when I found the other paper products. We didn't end up making popcorn, so they just filled them up with movie treats.


Then the girls all piled into MonaLisa's room. One had gone home, so there were three in the bunkbeds and two on an air mattress on the floor. They stayed up until after midnight and still woke up before 7am.

The next morning the Bear made waffles for our guests and they slowly filtered out the door. All of them still wearing their pjs.

Her best friend stayed for the whole day and then we went to the Olive Garden for our family dinner. Here's MonaLisa, Ratchet, and her best friend.
Overall, it was a good birthday, but a lot of work for me. My friend, Amy, told me they decided to do birthday experiences instead of parties. I told MonaLisa this was going to be her last party and from now on we'll be doing experiences. At first she was a bit disappointed then I showed her that if we were going to do it this year we would have had the opportunity to go see the "2008 Tour of Gymnastics Superstars" and she decided that it would be okay to change to birthday experiences. All I know is that I won't have to stress over house cleaning and party favors. (Amy, thank you, thank you, thank you for the idea.)

Happy Birthday, MonaLisa!!!