party time!

Adelaide's birthday party was a blast! Justin took the day off so we all got the house ready for guests and prepared lunch for the kids. We chose to have the party in between Arabella's naps so she could participate without being cranky. Both girls looked adorable in their party dresses. Addie had no less than three costume changes throughout the entire party. She started off in her party dress and then moved on to every princess gown she has, one by one. Here she is with best bud StellaThe party was all about princesses and dress-up so we pulled out all of the gowns, tutus, shoes, magic wands, crowns, and jewelry for the kids to dress up in. Sammy was the superhero!They ran around and played with the toys, danced, and only got totally crazy when Justin pretended to be a monster and come after them. They all ran to Addie's room, jumped on her bed and huddled together to stay away from the monster! Leave it to Justin to get the kids all riled up. He's so good with them and kept them so entertained the Mom's could sit and snack on lunch. Seriously good Dad! Anyone who knows Justin knows that kids are his calling and he really likes getting down with them and playing. He's just a big kid himself. I'm never more in love with my husband than when he's being silly with kids. Ours or other people's children. Arabella roamed around the party playing just like the big kids. She was in heaven with all the commotion and excitement. I love this picture of her because she looked like this the whole party. She really liked little Lindsey though. Probably because they share the same passion for the baby doll stroller. Bella feels a kindred spirit in Lindsey.All the kids ate french bread pizza and fruit kabobs (best move I made was to scrap the idea of making homemade pizza dough for individual pizzas. There was just no time to make the dough). All of the kids were basically too excited to eat any real food. Off they went to play until we called for them to come out for cake. Addie loved the Cinderella figurines on her cake. We joked that it was winter for Cinderella and Prince Charming. Isaac was quick to point out that maybe we should make this cake when we move back to America where there is real winter. Good point. One side of the cake slide off a little bit and on the inside you can see just what a disaster the thing was but, oh did it taste good. All the kids and parents enjoyed the cake and no one cared in the least that the inside was a mess. Addie sang herself "Happy Birthday" nice and loud along with everyone else and it made me so proud. She's been waiting for her birthday moment since Justin's birthday in March. Here she is, in May with the last birthday of the family finally getting her moment which she has waited so patiently for it. She blew out her candle with a little help from her Dad and then dug in.She graciously let her friends help her open her presents. We saved some of the family gifts for the next day since it would have taken all night to get through all the gifts from Grammy and Grandpa! Justin and I have been so swamped that we haven't even wrapped the gifts we bought for her. We'll get to it sometime. Arabella claimed the Barbie satchel from Anis as her own and walked around the house like she was in college marching through the quad on to her next econ class or something. She cracks me up. We totally blanked and forgot to give our guests their treat bags Addie and I put together. In the end that was the worst of it. I don't even think the kids missed them. The party was so fun and Addie was the sweetest little birthday girl I can imagine. I couldn't stop kissing my girl. We love this pretty one so much!