Surprise Party and Cupcake Fun

Last Wednesday was my youngest daughter's last "half day" of kindergarten before starting full days like the other grades. On Tuesday, I was trying to figure out what we could do when I picked her up on Wednesday. The way I viewed it, it was her absolutely very last afternoon of "freedom" before the reality of life set in - before having to go to school - all day, everyday, followed by growing up and being responsible and having to do other things like work and care for a family - all day, everyday. (Overanalyzing? Probably.)

So I wanted Wednesday to be special but it was too hot to do anything outdoors like the zoo or the park. Most of the indoor places we've gone to many times and I was looking to do something different. Finally, at about 10 o'clock Tuesday night, I decided that she and her best friend, who also started kindergarten this year, could frost and decorate cupcakes. Hubs thought it was a great idea, too, and we decided not to tell her of the plans.

But you know how it goes, how one thing leads to another...and I ended up just throwing a full fledged party. I bought all the things I needed Wednesday morning while she was at school but I only had a couple of hours to get home and decorate and setup. It was a whirlwind of a morning but everything was finished by the time I had to leave and pick her and her friend up from school. We had lots of balloons and streamers and SpongeBob decor. Someday I'd love to do a party where all the decorations are vintage-y and classic and handmade, but this time I had no time so store bought had to do. I went a little overboard buying sprinkles and candy and frosting - but the girls just loved it! When all the big sisters came home at 3, there were six girls total and it was so much fun! It was a Wednesday afternoon and though they had homework and I had other responsibilities, we all just forgot about that for a while to decorate cupcakes and cookies, dance, drink punch, eat mozzeralla sticks,raw veggies, oh - and cupcakes! I even let the little kids jump off the furniture, hehe. Everyone was *so* surprised and couldn't believe that they were having such fun on what would otherwise be a pretty boring Wednesday afternoon. My little one was so thrilled that she kept running up and giving me big bear hugs and saying, "You're the BEST mommy EVER!" I can't count how many times she did that - and it just made it all so very worth it:)

I took the above picture a couple of hours after the party was over, when the girls' friends went home and all was quite in the house again. The girls didn't want me to take down the decorations so they stayed up for a few days afterwards:) I decorated the living room, too, and got lots of fun photos of the girls being silly and having fun, but I've grown a little more "afraid" to post many photos of my kidlets online. So instead I'll post some of their cupcake creations...you can certainly tell that an adult didn't decorate these!








After the party, hubs and my little one went out to run some errands and when they returned, my munchkin brought me these beautiful flowers! Hubs said she saw them and told him she wanted to give them to me to thank me for having a surprise party for her...how sweet! They look perfect above my sink. (Hubs recently dunked my kitchen curtains in some dirty dish water when he was removing them to do some work, so my window is naked once again until I put them back up...and maybe soon I'll put a photo in that frame!) So it was such a lovely, lovely day that none of us will soon forget.

Speaking of naked and work, I'm really chomping it to bits to get our crown moulding up in our kitchen. Doesn't it look so bare without it? So that's our next kitchen project as soon as we financially recover from all the school shopping we've had to do lately!

Have a great day, everyone!