Ashlie Turns 9

Wow! What a fun (and exhausting) time we had celebrating Ashlie's birthday. Several weeks before her birthday, Ashlie had her entire birthday planned. She knew who was being invited, what to eat, where to go, activities to do, decorations to put up, and even what kind of cake to make and ice cream to buy. It made it easy to pull it together last minute but we hadn't taken into account our exhaustion coming into the celebration! It all turned out fine, just very tiring! She had a good birthday and that is what matters! I'm just wondering though, why do they call it a slumber party when there is very little slumbering done???

The celebrating actually began the day before her birthday with the primary children singing happy birthday to her at church. It just so happened that there were 2 other children who shared the exact same birthday with her!

Her birthday fell on a Monday this year. Craig made her scrambled eggs (her request) for breakfast and then the 5 of us headed over to Adventure Park for some birthday fun. We went at lunch time so were able to all eat at the pizza buffet and then we played some games in the arcade area. After that we all went out and rode the bumper boats! It was especially fun because this was Tyler's first time riding the bumper boats. He finally hit the height requirement. Tyler rode with Craig in one boat and then each of us girls had our own. We were the only group on the boats and no one was in line so the attendant let us ride for a really long time. By the time our ride was over we were all pretty wet! Ashlie spent most of her time over by the waterfall, the rest of us spent our time trying to squirt each other! We all had a really fun time.


This is a picture of the kids after the bumper boats!


After Adventure Park we came home and straightened up to get ready for the slumber party. Ashlie had 3 friends over! We had tons of fun! They got to make their own mini pizzas for dinner, decorate their own cupcakes, make chocolates, swim, eat popcorn, watch movies, and play RockBand! At 3 am we had to finally put our foot down and make them go to bed! We're too old for 3 am parties!!! Especially since we realized that Craig had to work the next day :( The next morning Craig got up early for work and made pancakes at Ashlie's request. We had M&M's, whip cream, strawberries, chocolate chips, and sprinkles for the toppings! They all had a great time and were very tired to prove it!

The beginnings of the morning after the 3 am party!


And now they sleep!


There are 4 of them there! Can you count them all?



During the night they played with dolls, played games, played RockBand, and had a hair cutting party with the Barbies!


Breakfast condiments

This is the state of the kitchen table the morning after the slumber party :)


Do we really have to wake up???


This was her cake for the family party! She requested a waterslide cake. On each of the three layers there is a fondant wave all around the top. It didn't turn out as good as I wanted but I guess that is what happens when you are working under the conditions I had :( Oh well, Ash was happy!