A Birthday Bash!!

Call us crazy and we will absolutely agree with you. The proof of our insanity is what my husband and I did on Saturday night...

We had a birthday party for Caroline...

and invited 15 girls, thinking surely some would not be able to come...

but they all did...

and it was a SLEEPOVER.

I'll let you mull that over in your mind a little bit.

That's right. We had 15 very excited little 7 and 8 year old girls, 16 counting Caroline. On the invite, we said that the girls could sleep over night with us if they would like to. Four wound up going home, and the rest stayed.

Aside from a few moments of drama (after all, they are girls) and NON-STOP action, the party was a success. Caroline and her friends were happy little girls! (A BIG shout out to my mom and dad for taking Henry, Seth and Evan to a movie, and letting them spend the night...Thank you so much!)

We started out the night with pizza and juice...and a little dancing entertainment from Caroline and Elyse...

Then it was time for cake (in Caroline's new favorite color, orange!)...

and the birthday song...

Caroline blew her candles out, but they kept relighting because her rotten mom used the trick kind. Aren't these sweet friends beautiful?!
Then it was time for opening presents. Caroline's friends spoiled her!

After that we played a little Halloween "Minute to Win it!" My husband's Aunt Debby had thought of these fun games for her Halloween party for our family at the lake, and she graciously let us use her ideas and supplies for Caroline's party. This picture shows Audrey doing "Shake your BOOOO-ty!," where the kids got to attach a kleenex box full of ping pong balls to their booty, and then they had to shake the balls out of the box in under a minute. Hilarity ensued. :)

Here's Caroline shaking her booooty!

Then it was time to make witch's stew. The kids had to suck up ingredients (a bat, an eyeball, a bone, etc) with a straw, and then transport them into the witch's cauldron.

We played a few more games, like The Frankenstein Walk and Dizzy Mummy, played a little house and school, danced, watched a movie, ate popcorn, and then settled the girls down for the night at around 11:00. Thanks to us setting the clocks ahead, the girls thought that they were staying up until 12:30, and that was a good thing. Several of the girls, including Caroline, had their last soccer game of the season the next morning, and I didn't want them to be too tired to play well.

The girls woke up early the next morning, and we made them a good breakfast of donuts, cider, bananas, bacon and eggs. They were very thankful to have more time to play after that, and they used it well by writing and performing their own play.

What a party! Happy birthday, sweet Caroline!