Addie Rose turns 4 today!

Addie's birthday party came during a busy time for us. I've been crossing my fingers everything would come together for the big day. I love having parties for the girls. I love how excited they get and I wanted this party to be a little extra special since it's the last time Addie may see some of her friends before we move. Because we don't have our kitchen resources, I ordered a cake and had someone else come decorate. I wanted to take advantage of the rock bottom party rental and party planning prices here in the Philippines and there was no better time than now. We also had someone come for face painting! It was loads of fun and everyone had a good time. Amazingly enough between Cora and I and our measly embassy welcome kit kitchen items, we managed to pull off quite a spread of food for the parents and kids. Addie and Justin chose the iPod playlist. Bella begged for the balloons that were strung all over the house and thoroughly messed up her dress in record time. Here is the birthday girl with her best buds. These girls had to stick together this year at preschool.I can't believe how unbelievably unprepared we were for having so many 4-6 year old boys in our house. There were 6 girls at the party (that includes Bella and another toddler sibling). There were 11 boys and I swear they suddenly turned into wild animals when they all got together. It became apparent that we didn't have enough structured party games or activities to occupy the boys. The girls on the other hand were fine with a light dance party, our t-shirt designing craft and playing with Barbie dolls. The boys started drop kicking one another and wrestling. There was so much noise! Addie has a black eye from colliding with one of the boys and another boy beat her to blowing out her candle after we all sang "Happy Birthday" (I was especially peeved because it was an older sibling that I had made an exception to allow to the party-never again). I vowed it was the last time we invite the entire class for her birthday (especially when the class consists of 3 girls and 12 boys).

Addie didn't seem too bothered by the boy chaos. Most likely because she and her two little girl friends go to school every day with these rowdy boys. The teachers are much better at keeping things in order than we were. In the end,

The cake was delicious and gorgeous. The t-shirt designing craft was fun and different than anything we've seen at other parties and she loved opening all the gifts from her friends and grandparents. Mostly, she was the birthday girl for the day and loved every second of it.