Girls Nite!

This coming Wednesday is Kendall's 8th birthday. 8!!!!! Where does the time go?

My sweet girl told me that this year she didn't really want a big party like we usually do. What she actually said was more along the lines of, "Hey Mama...I was thinking that maybe I shouldn't have a big party this year. The economy is hard on a lot of people and having 2 parties is probably going to be really expensive. Maybe I could have a big party every other year. Would that be ok?"

Ok, now first of all, where she got the stuff about the economy blew me away. Girlfriend must have her ears open all the time! Secondly, I have to give her credit for thinking about the "every other year" part. And yes, we usually have two parties...one for her school friends and then one for all the family. See, normally we have her party for her friends at some fun location, like the paint-your-own-pottery place, or Universal Gymnasts, or Galaxy Games & Golf. Because all of our family has to come into town (and there really aren't any other children), we have a second family party the next day so the grandmas and grandpas don't have to sit through a Chuck E. Cheese - type place. It's nice to have all the family over, serve them lunch, cake, and ice cream and just sit and visit. So anyway...we took Kendall up on her offer.

Except...I asked her if she would like to just have a couple of girls over for a sleepover. Why? Because I believe a person's birthday is a day to be celebrated over and over and over. It's a special day! And because these girls don't get together that often. Of course, she was THRILLED with that arrangement! So at 4:00 on Saturday, my house was filled with the squealing of little girls. They had so much fun...

They designed their own picture frames...

Pretty nice, eh? I found these cute kits at the Target Dollar Spot...and then I took a picture of all the girls that they could put in it.

They brought gifts...

And Noah thought the tissue paper was a gift for him to play in...

They had cupcakes...

I did mani/pedis on all the girls...so fun!

And then, after watching HSM, (and after much cajoling), they went to bed. After midnight...

And boy, were we tired the next day! But we all had a nap and made it through. Now, I just have to get the family party all ready to go for this Saturday...wish me luck!