So where do we start, except for right here: never in a million years did I imagine that I would be a mom to a 6 year old smart beautiful sassy daughter. Really. It just never crossed my mind. Obviously it was going to happen, but wow! What can I say…. I am very happy to be celebrating Alexis today!
Every year she becomes more and more aware and fun and birthdays get better and better, despite less and less planning going into them. Let’s admit it by year 6 we have become the “I don’t want to put too much effort into all of this” parents and Alexis has become “I just want to hang out with my friends and have fun” child. Win win in my book!
So the weekend before Alexis’ birthday, we gathered friends and local family for some party time at the pool. What was going to be a simple get together turned into a fun exciting party full of well behaved kids running around, parents drinking beer and cocktails, music blasting and the whole area of the pool and volleyball court all to ourselves. And let’s not forget the adult volleyball game and the cake face smash (yes, you read it right, watch for it below)
Every year, we try to bring a sponsor for the party that provides activities for the kids and this year it was OOLY. I am sure you have seen OOLY around my blog before and I only bring on companies that I am a huge fan of and truly believe in. With the help of OOLY we were able to put together goodie bags for the guests, as well as have a creative hands-on art and role playing activity, Colorables, during the party.
To see the goodie bags the guests left with, come back in a few days or subscribe to our newsletter on the right.
Do we want to start with the cake smash? Oh yes we do… She loved it! Laughed so hard over the fact that her nostrils had cake in it…
We invited her friends from preschool that we still stay in touch with, as well as neighbor friends and her school friends. She was actually quite excited to pass out invitations at her school to everyone and even tracked down a few kindergartners from other classes that she was friends with. The kids spent most of the time playing in the sand ( we couldn’t tear them away), coloring their Colorables (about that later) and swimming in the pool.
THEN IT WAS TIME FOR OUR PLANNED ACTIVITY.
We had set up Ooly 3D Colorables for all the kids. Colorables can be best described as flat coloring pages that can be blown up into 3D toys, once finished, and used as role playing toys. So it’s like 3 activities in one: once you’re done with your masterpiece you actually get to use it as a prop. There are tiaras, swords, shields, unicorns, butterfly and dragon wings, wands – everything a kid would need for some fun time. Some of the children partially colored their inflatable toys and wanted them to come to life and to play with them. Some sat patiently filling out every spot before they were ok blowing it up (Lexi was one of these to my surprise). Some hurried up and blew theirs up and then decided they wanted to color more. One thing that was clear is that NO ONE was bored. Everyone was so impressed with the 3D Colorables, I got a million questions about where I got them and Ooly and, of course, I was happy to talk to them about it. The children all were so focused on the activity that they ignored pizza that was brought out for food. While some kids colored, others were already battling each other with the swords. It made me really happy to see all the boys and girls who for the most part had never met each other before, of completely different ages ( we had, 9 year old friends of Lexi, and 10 year old siblings, and 3 year olds and 12 year olds), come together for this activity and really enjoy it.
After a ton of role playing, we went to the pool. I smiled to myself when I looked up from the pool and saw a crowd of kids and a line of parents watching them, in the same place we always come to swim, but now filled with laughter and familiar faces. Once the kids started asking for cake, we had to get out the towels and move back over for some cake action. Lexi was soooo excited! After she blew out the candles, one of her friends asked what she had wished her, to which she answered “For the whole world to be happy!” Which really sums up her whole personality right now at 6 years old: KIND
