The Big Birthday Bash

Today was Hannah's High School Musical birthday party. I've been doing birthday parties ever since Hannah's 1st birthday and I think today's party, despite there being 33 people here, was the easiest party we've ever done, and the least amount of stress for me. Last birthday, we had the grandparents and local Auntie and cousins over for pizza and cake. Shortly following that birthday, Hannah asked for a party this year where she could invite her friends from school. And that's what she got this year...a birthday party with all her friends from school....about 15 of them, throw in a few friends from church, parents who stayed, siblings that were brought, all Hannah's grandparents, an out of town great aunt and her son, and her Auntie and cousins, and it made for one rip roaring party!For the first time ever, we rented a bounce house for the occassion. We went to a lot of work preparing for this thing. We lost most of our grassy backyard when we put our patio in, so it took me a while to find a bounce house that would fit in the area we did have large enough for a bounce house. Once I found one that would fit, it required the palm tree being trimmed up. With as many kids that were here, I'm glad we had the bounce house, especially as people (more than one) called asking if it was alright if they brought someone along with them. Lunch was served. We barbequed hot dogs and had a couple different kinds of chips, and I made a pasta salad. I wasn't sure who's parents would be staying or who would be bringing their sibling, so I had a friend stop at the store and get more hot dogs on her way...turns out we had way more hot dogs than needed. But better to be safe than sorry when you have this large of a group.In addition to the bounce house, we turned the living room into a Kareoke stage. Steven rigged the computer and projector together to project the song lyrics up onto the wall so the kids could sing the songs that are in High School Musical. This turned out better than we thought it would and the kids really enjoyed it, some more than others. :) With lunch done, it was soon it was time for presents. The party invitation read that the party was from 11:00 - 2:00, and some parents said they would be coming back earlier. Opening presents took F-O-R-E-V-E-R. With Hannah knowing how to read now, she read all the cards outloud, and slowly opened her presents.

This is the gift table before the opening of gifts. Hannah's room, after all the presents have been opened!It was the year for Polly Pockets!! Oh my gosh, Hannah must have gotten at least seven different Polly Pocket things, none in which were duplicates!

After all the presents had been opened, and "thank yous" had been said, it was time for cake and ice cream. I was so excited when I found this edible cake decal on Ebay months ago, and was bummed that the plastic wrap over the cake had fallen in the night and had stuck to it, and tore it as I tried to remove it, so I just left the plastic wrap until we served the cake. Parties past, I would have been stressed out over such a mishap. But there was nothing I could do about it, and there was still a cake to serve. We served just about the entire cake! After all the party guests were gone. It was time for us to have some fun in the bounce house. LOL. So the four of us got in that thing and made use of having it in our backyard. We ended the big day with going to Applebees for dinner, whereas Rachel was so worn out, she fell asleep on my lap. Hannah almost having fallen asleep in her bath. They were two tired girlies. Hannah had a great day and loved having her friends come to play at her house. We had a great time too! It was the first official event hosted on our new patio!