The party was from 5:00-9:00 and was technically horse themed. However, if anyone knows me, I'm not really into themes all that much. It isn't that I don't like it or wouldn't want to be one of those that can pull off the parties where everything down to the toilet paper is part of the theme; its just that my creativity only goes so far sometimes. Basically, the invitation had a horse on it and they watched a horse movie...does 2 things a theme make? I shall ask my English teacher hubby...
While all the guests were arriving, the girls (and H-man) played Wii Just Dance upstairs. I'm pretty sure this is "Eye of the Tiger." Stinkin cute.
After all the girls arrived in their finest jammery, we worked on their "party-favors." We'd bought mason jars for each guest and 5 big boxes of sugar cereal. You know, the kind you used to always want but all you got was Cheerios or Life? We put the cereal in big bowls in the middle of the table and everyone filled up their jar to their heart's content. It was so interesting to see some of the kids only fill it up half-way and politely say they had enough. Then there was the birthday girl stuffing handfuls in her mouth the whole time and Hudson who filled his to the tippy-top with the sugariest in the lot.
Next, they got to decorate their jars with puffy paint. We had some real artists in the bunch! I do have to admit that this part was not on Pinterest and I hadn't really thought through what you can use on glass...soooo...two trips to Michael's and a bunch of art-supplies that probably are not returnable later, I finally ended up with something that worked. Note to self: just stick to what it says on Pinterest. Don't go getting all fancy and having your own ideas.
Dinner was a pasta extravaganza! Okay, we had two kinds of noodles and two kinds of sauce...again, I think this qualifies in my book as an extravaganza. We meant to have a green veggie along with the pasta and bread, but alas, it didn't get cooked in all the excitement and needless to say, it wasn't missed by the party-goers.
Next, on to the movie! Stella has been really into the Misty of Chincoteague story, so I was super excited to find the old movie on Amazon. Once again, I probably should have stuck with the script here and used the movie the other Mom had written about. The movie was okay, but it was pretty slow in parts and the girls started to lose interest. They did manage to consume an extraordinary amount of popcorn, however. I don't have a picture of how cute everyone was cuddled up in the dark eating popcorn and watching the movie. I do have a picture of the aftermath...
We did the traditional gift-opening and candle-blowing during the party as well. Stella opted to not have a cake and just have the popcorn and smoothies instead, so we propped her 8 candles in a bowl of candy corn and serenaded her like only a group of second-grade girls can do-- "Cha, Cha, Cha!"
At the end of the evening, as we waited for parents, I rolled out the Twister board. It was a little tricky because some of the kids still aren't 100% confident in their lefts and rights, but they managed it all right.
Finally, everyone was picked up and we all spent an hour or so coming down off the half sleep-over high. It was really fun to have all Stella's sweet little friends in our house and be able to have a great party without spending a ton of money. I would do it again in a heart-beat. Okay, give me another 11 months and 20 days to recover and then I'll be ready.
