Happy 5th Birthday, Maryn!!!

Maryn turned five early this morning and we had a wonderful party today at noon with some of her best friends.

We couldn't invite all of our church AND seminary friends over for a gigantic birthday party, so we just invited a few friends who we knew would be home during the day.  Because of that I'm posting some pictures here on the blog instead of facebook and ask that if you repost these pics, please don't tag me.  :)

 Mommy really made sure this party-loving, decoration crazy girl got the party of her dreams.  I did it up right this time!

 She was so, so, so very excited for her big day.

 We had a cake and ice cream sundae making station, so the kids got to choose from strawberry or funfetti cake, fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, maraschino cherries), whipped cream and sprinkles.

 We wanted to make sure all the Strawberry Land girls were included in the party preparations.  So Lemon Meringue made the lemonade and Blueberry Muffin, Raspberry Torte, and Cherry Cuddler all helped provide the fruit.

 Josiah and Maryn loved seeing Gracyn and her new baby brother.  They used to be our neighbors and we miss them very much.

 Maryn had six little girls here to play with and she spent a majority of her time playing with her buddy, Eli.  :)  I love the friendship these two have, especially since Maryn used to pretty much hate him.  :)

 The Erdmans and the Powells.  Minus Aidan.  Oh, here he is....

 I missed getting pictures of the McFarlands and the Wiggers, and Gracyn would not look at the camera!  But we had ten little kids here, plus three toddlers/babies.  And two pregnant mamas.  It was a lot of fun!

 This is our "pin the strawberry on the vine" game.  Who did the best?  The two and three year olds!  Josiah was the winner!!!

We ate three large Papa John's pizzas, one with Maryn's favorite toppings (mushrooms, olives, pepperoni, extra cheese, sausage) and my kids were the only kids who would eat that one, lol.  Ella Grace devoured three pieces of pizza plus her ice cream and cake! We listened to Strawberry Shortcake music and played in the kids' rooms, and played outside.   All the girls got cute reusable Strawberry Shortcake cups with fun favors inside (mostly jewelry, accessories and candy).  The boys got reusable Batman cups with fun favors, too (candy, disc shooters, sunglasses, Batman stuff).

I think all the kids had a lot of fun.  I even enjoyed it, too!  I like simple parties, and although the decorations and the food did take a lot of time and money, Maryn was so happy....She just LOVES this kind of stuff.  She is such a girly girly girl!

I totally did not plan well and we aren't going to be able to have Maryn's favorite for dinner tonight.  Pasta instead.  This mama is too tired to make chicken and mushrooms anyway!

Maryn, I love you sweet girl.  And I love having parties in your honor!  I just hope somehow we can make your brothers think that they don't need big parties too, or we are going to go broke.  Haha!  Maybe we'll say the 5th Birthday is special?