Irene's party

We had Irene's birthday party to celebrate her 6th birthday on December 3rd (Wed) after school. It was kind of late notice, and so I sent out email invitations! It worked great, and we had a good crowd. Lots of her schoolmates came. Our dear friends from Denver came, and it was SOOOO GOOD to see them and to hang out with them after the party. I didn't want them to leave. My mom and my sister Ricki came, and were a BIG help in all the festivities.

The kids were invited to come dressed as princesses if they liked, and many of them did! They did a craft of foam pieces that made a decoration that said "Let it Snow" (although, many of them decided to just spell out their name instead of those words) and had a snowman and a penguin.

I brought out the crazy rice box and Ricki ran the craziness as they were blindfolded and timed and searched the box for small toys and candies. When May was little, the kids threw handfuls of rice, sat in the box, and it took me weeks to get all the rice cleaned up. LOL! This time, the kids carefully and gently searched for the treasures, and very little got spilled. I tried to encourage more ACTIVE digging, but they remained calm and cool. Maybe the days of the FUN of the rice box are passed?? My girls still love reburying the treasures and finding them over and over again after the parties. I joined them this time, and SO enjoyed the feeling of the cool, dry rice flowing over my fingers and hands. It gave me a longing for the beach!

After the rice box search, they did the pinata. It was a little too weak and broke on about the 3rd or fourth kid! I need to perfect my technique. After it opened and all the candy was scooped up, several of the kids still wanted a turn at hitting the EMPTY pinata! It was fun forme to see that they enjoyed it so much -- even without the reward of candy!

It helped that they got to use Chris' wooden sword from Japan. The kids always love that.

Irene loved her Sleeping Beauty doll cake, but refused to eat any. LOL!

Irene LOVED every present she got - lots of girlie foo-foo things. She was thrilled! She was probably most thrilled with the Snow White costume Ricki and Jerry gave to her, and the tiara-earrings-crown-shoes set from Grandma. She changed into these, and one of her boy friends then got to try on her pink dress! Fun!

She slept in the Snow White dress, and has worn it EVERY day since then. LOL! When we were driving to church a few days later, she was wishing that she could wear it to church. I told her she should have ASKED - I would have said YES. I can just see what she will be asking/wearing this coming Sunday. :-)

After all the party events were finished, Ricki gifted the kids with one of her wonderful stories. They loved it!

THANK YOU to everyone who helped Irene have such a great celebration!