Olivia's Birthday; The Party

We decided to just have a few friends over for Olivia's birthday this year.  I have friends from MOPS and Michael has friends from work, but we have two families who we are all friends with--Michael's high school friend John and his family, and Wil and Alycia and their girls.  So that is who we had over.  My mom also flew down to celebrate Olivia and spend a week with the kids.

Olivia had been saying she wanted a Little Mermaid birthday for nearly the entire year.  I had looked at cakes on Pinterest and planned a very simple theme.  Then at the last minute she changed her mind.  We went to the party store and she said she wanted an "all princess birthday".  We did a princess birthday last year, and I knew it would be a slippery slope of I want this princess to be this decoration and on and on.  Thankfully, I showed her some Strawberry Shortcake decorations and she ended up choosing that.

We really did keep it pretty simple.  We bought the banner, the table cloth, some plates and napkins, a few things to hang from the ceiling and some confetti.

We had pirate's booty, strawberries, strawberry applesauce, and chips.  We also got a tray of nuggets from Chick-fil-a (not pictured, but we put it to the right).  Some of the kids have food allergies, so the nuggets were a perfect thing for everyone!  I got the cake from Market Street.  It's strawberry too--Olivia's request.

Drinks--Raspberry Lemonade, juice boxes, and water

The bakery was going to charge me an extra $15 to make a decorative 4, so I skipped that part and just shoved a doll in the cake instead. ;)

I just bought a few bubble wands as favors.  Like I said, we kept it simple!

Logan was a BIG fan of the balloons!

Trying to get a good picture of these two is nearly impossible!

The best I could do.

Michael picked up the nuggets right around when the party was suppose to start.  So we ate right at the beginning so that they were still warm.

After dinner the kids played with the doll house, had a dance party, and ran around having a blast.

Alison and Jordyn!

It was finally time for cake.  I replaced the doll with a pack of Strawberry Shortcake candles. The pack came with 4. Perfect!

Being sung too

Blowing out the candles!

Logan sort of got the crumblings from cutting the cake.  But he didn't eat too much of it, actually.  He was zoned out!

Cammy

And sweet Charlotte

Avery, Jordyn and Olivia back at the Lego table

 The present opening turned out to be a big blur--literally.  But the Carrillo's got her a princess play doh set that she and my mom played with every morning while my mom was here.  The Vorlicky's got her an Anna doll where you do the hair.  Olivia has been asking for a way to listen to music in her room.  So my mom bought her a CD player and the Frozen soundtrack.

Jace, Jordyn, Logan, Olivia, Avery, and Camdyn (Charlotte was in mommy's arms)

It was the perfect little celebration for our girl.  Michael made a comment afterwards that it was just the right amount of people for our house.  I think it was also the right amount of people for our sweet girl who can sometimes get overwhelmed.  She stated that this was the best birthday ever, so I think it was a win!