Ariel's 5th

Ariel's birthday was this past Friday. Tegan held the party yesterday at the house. Last year, as you might or might not know, Ariel requested a mermaid theme from "The Little Mermaid." We had just moved into our current house and Tegan worked very hard and (I think) pulled together a nice party.

This year, we are both significantly busier than we were last summer at this time. Not a night goes by that T. doesn't have to do some work or consider going back to the office to do work there. I am also fairly busy, but nowhere as busy as her.

The first job in any party prep is to decide on a theme. And while "Little Mermaid" was a no-brainer last year, neither Ariel nor Tegan and I could figure out what to settle on this year. We discussed many things. I pushed for "Kim Possible" because I think it is a funny show. But in the end, we went back to that old stand-by programmed deep within a little-girl's heart--PRINCESS!!

So, once we got that out of the way, then what exactly would be done? When? How? It was very difficult to get the details worked out. And so, we . . .

outsourced the party preparation this year! I feel a bit sheepish about this as it seems like such a Yuppie/Starbucks kind of thing to do . . . and because I didn't have a whole lot to do with the preparations to begin with. So, I am a loser no matter what.

But, we did what we did. And, in the end, I think that everything worked out well . . . or so I was told. I wasn't there. It was MY job to take Ruth away and make sure she didn't disrupt the situation. Maybe an over-reaction, but I thought (and Tegan agreed) that it was best to be safe. Hopefully Ruth will forgive us some day.

The party planner came at 3 pm on Sunday. I took Ruth out of the house before then and we spent the afternoon playing in the kid's area at the mall and then having a little bit of fun at the local swimming pool. After all of that we went out to eat.

What I know of the party itself comes from the pictures that Tegan took and what she told me about the event.

Ultimately, I think that everything went well. That is especially true since we had it all figured out within a week's time. So, enjoy the pictures, since I seem to have run out of ideas for this post.

Here is Ariel "suiting up" for the party. The party planner provided all of the cute dresses for the girls to wear. It was this level of other stuff that helped sway this lady in our minds. The food wasn't spectacular or anything, but the dresses and the effort to create an atmosphere was nicely done.

Here is Ariel with one of her friends from the old daycare back at our old residence. Oddly enough, no one of Ariel's friends from the new center were able to come to the party. I think that was a function of the fact that some of her friends have recently moved to a different daycare that was constructed right next to ours. Also, there was the short notice for the party combined with the summertime vacation issue. But there were seven kids that came, and I think that is a very manageable number.

Here is Ariel with more of her friends. You can see that there were some boys at this party (three to be exact) and while the girls dressed as princesses, the boys got to be knights. The party planner had three knight costumes, and luckily there were three boys who accepted our invitation.

And here is Ruth in the aftermath of everything. She takes a good picture, doesn't she? I wonder what we are going to do for her birthday next year? I guess we should start planning now . . .