Keegan Quote

"Mommy! In exactly one month, I will be a teen-..."
Me, interrupting, "This is the seventh."
[Her birthday is the 8th.]
Keegan, "NOo, it's not..oh, wait. Nevermind."

11th Birthday Party!

Kelsey turned eleven and had a ...

She had a lot of fun picking and choosing games and checking out Pinterest for ideas :).
After much thought, the invitations...

it was between this one, one that looked like a tickets and a message in a balloon.
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For games, we decided on Duck Wars, Plinko, Car Race, Ball Toss, and a couple of others.

We played "Guess how many gummy bears are in the jar?"....

...which Kelsey ended up winning!

Seventy-one gummy bears,if you wondered :). She guessed sixty-five. Most kids guessed around fifty.

Brooklin guessed three :).

As people arrived, they picked up a bag which contained one ticket for each game, plus two extras, so they could replay their favorites.

They made their guess for the candy jar, then went downstairs

 to start the games! At each game, each girl could win a number of tickets.



The ball toss was pretty popular. The top row was worth ten tickets, with various values for green, purple, and sides, down to one ticket for the bottom row.

 







The cars were powered by balloons, which Caitlyn repeatedly inflated :). Unfortunately, one car fizzled out about halfway through the games, so we substituted an extra game of Duck Wars for some guests.


 

High five!

We had fun making the Plinko board! It was peppered with golf tees to make the discs' descents unpredictable.

 

 

In Duck Wars, two people each had a squirt bottle. The goal was to move the duck to the other end of the container. Whoever got the duck to touch the other end won that round.



After all these tickets had been played, we had one final game - starring Sweetie The Birthday Dog. We adapted this idea from a book we had read. Each person chose a dog treat and placed it on the floor next to a ticket with her name on it.

 Then I brought down Sweetie (who had been in a bedroom to prevent her from getting too excited,) turned her in a circle, then let her go. The girls whose treats she ate first won tickets.

 

Sweetie thought this was a great game!

 

Then it was time to count and redeem tickets!

 

 

 

 

Finally, we ate...

 

 

 

....and opened presents!

 

Kelsey is always so appreciative and gives everyone hugs :).

 

This picture is missing Brooklin, Elayna, and Olivia, but I love it, anyway.
Such a great group of girls!

I am so thankful for the good friends Kelsey has and for everyone who made her birthday so much fun.

 

Happy birthday, Kelse!

Sweet moment

I love this picture!

 

 

I already posted this on Facebook,but I love it and wanted to post it here, too :). So, sorry if you've seen it before (but not really because it's worth seeing twice ;).

Brooklin was being a monster, "scaring" Kelsey.

Such a cute moment between two precious girls.

Third B-day

I am not known for watching my children grow up gracefully. In reality, I kick and scream and fight against it as hard as I can.

Now, not only are my babies growing up way too quickly, but my little great-niece, Brooklin is doing the same thing!

 The former "Baby Brooklin" has had her third birthday!

We gave her presents one day when she was at our house  - some toys and a Dora blanket,

 made with much love by Kelsey.

 I had warned Kelse that the blanket would be something that was enjoyed over time, while the toys would be what she would play with immediately.

 
 
 

Just goes to show (once again) how much I know.

She was crazy over the blanket.

^^^Those big smiles^^^

are all for this.

 Brooklin wanted Keegan to "be the prince" using the Dora blanket and Keegan, a good sport as usual, did just that.

 
 

Brooklin joined in as the princess, and a great time was had by all.

She did play with the toys a bit, too :).

 

And from her actual party -

Lots of pink and princess finery, just as it should have been.

 

Happy third birthday, Brooklin!

We love you!

Slumber Party

It's that time again - party time!

Keegan had planned some water games she wanted to play.  This is a variation of "Duck, Duck, Goose," called "Drip, Drip, Drench."  "It" carries a sponge. This ended up being a lot of fun and popular with the girls.

Plus fun to watch, haha!

There was no mush pot - If the runner caught "it," she got to squeeze a spongeful of water on her head! (We made up that part :).

 

Caitlyn being a good sport, getting soaked by Keegan :).  I love Kelsey's expression in this shot, too.

 Another caught runner.  Funny, funny.

Usually I am pretty adament about natural colorings, etc., but this year we got a plain old, artificially colored, cute store-bought cake!

 To redeem myself just a bit, we also had watermelon, orange slices, grapes, and applesauce :).

 

Love this silliness - the girls decided to put all the hats on Keegan, haha.

 

 

 

The final result -  

 

It's not all about the presents, but I have to say that Keegan's gifts suited her perfectly.  She got bags, art supplies, and books - all of her favorite things! One is even an animal book, combining two of her favorie things :D.

Funny story - The girl who brought this great bag was telling how they were applying the "K" in the car on the way to our house.  Doesn't bother me in the least, but my guess is that her mother would not have preferred a public announcement :). That is just the kind of thing a child of mine would tell, without thinking a thing about it. 

 

Keegan decided to blow her blower at each person as part of their thanks after opening their present..., "Thank you," blow, blow.  Here, they got her back!

 

Sweet

 

Later, in the basement...

I couldn't believe the sometimes grouchy cat chose to lie in the middle of all the fun.

 

Happy birthday, Keegan!