Ellie turns 12!

Cutie girl got to celebrate her birthday - again! We were joking the other day about how she's one year older for every celebration she has, which means that she's not 6 anymore after having about a million separate parties.

This summer while I was browsing Pinterest, Ellie saw a rainbow cake and decided that was the ONE THING she wanted for her birthday. Then as her birthday drew nearer Jim was talking to Ellie's mom and announced to me that we were going to have Ellie for her birthday this year, at which I was ELATED. Immediately I started a new Pinterest board for the occasion and started dreaming. Only my hopes were dashed when I later found out that meant he could be with her for her birthday, but she wouldn't be coming up here to Oregon. Unfortunately air travel is a little cost prohibitive so as you all know, Aeryn and I didn't get to go down. Partly to ease my disappointment, and to indulge our wanting to be in on the fun parts of childhood too, we planned to do another party when she came up at Thanksgiving.

The theme was to be rainbow. 

I made favor bags using paper lunch sacks, paint swatches, and each child's name/letter. The girls helped glue the strips on and it was really hard for my OCD self to let them be uneven, but they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. I think only one bag ended up covered in extreme amounts of stray glue.

Since we ended up with a few leftover strips from the swatches, all I did was fold them over a piece of yarn and hold them in place with a piece of double sided tape and we had a cute rainbow banner. 

With our teeny apartment, we hosted the soiree at the community room which honestly just entices kids to run. They don't need a purpose or even any particular game going on, kids get in there and start running. We did have games planned, but much of the time things looked like this:

And yes, most of the pictures are blurry. Rapidly fading light + rambunctious littles + any number of other variables = happy to have any pictures at all.

The first organized activity we had was to make ribbon wands. I love ribbon wands, so it stands to reason that kids do too, right? They got to pick their own ribbons and then the grown ups helped them get assembled so no little fingers were burned by the glue gun.

Next we did a silly little race where each member of the team had to run to a basket full of clothing items, put one on, and go back to where they started - and so on until everyone was wearing something. We've done that in young women's before, and it was great fun, but I think these kids might have been a little too young to 1) really get what was going on and 2) think it was any fun at all. Perhaps this one was for my benefit too. Though, in my defense the kids were pretty dang cute putting on clothes 15 times bigger than they are.

Next we made bookmarks from pre-cut foam. This was a last minute addition when Ellie saw them at the dollar store and thought it would be fun. Honestly, I threw it in just because she liked it and it was cheap - but later when I asked what her favorite part of the party was she said this was it. Just goes to show how much we (I) can over think things for kids.

Which brings us to the cake...

I confess I'm really, really proud of this cake. It's not like it's a new idea or anything, but I've been planning it since about July (yes, JULY) and it was the entire reason we threw Ellie this party so I felt a little pressure to get it right. I tried a new to me recipe (classic white layer cake with butter icing) and a new to me icing recipe (supposedly best frosting). I added orange zest to the butter icing and used it between the layers and for the crumb coat. Then I used the second icing to cover the outside. Verdict? This will be my new go-to white cake recipe because it is phenomenal but I will never make the other icing again. Ever.

The layers turned out awesome but when I asked Ellie if she liked it it turns out she didn't like the orange. We used the exact same icing with orange on cookies the night before and she loved it, so my heart ached a little when she said that.

We can't forget the presents!!! We have the best friends in the world. Ellie was so excited to get presents from her Oregon friends and honestly adores every single thing. We were playing barbies, and ponies, and drawing all morning - and she wore her new hair clip and necklace on the plane home today.You guys (because I know some of you will read this) are honestly amazing. Thank you for loving Ellie so much!

After the cake, my favorite part was the photo booth. I've wanted to set one up for every single gathering I've ever planned, but this was the first time it actually came to fruition. You know what? It was perfect. The kids loved it and I think a rainbow movember party is about the coolest thing imaginable.