Kelsey's 12th Birthday

Yes, that's right, my baby girl is twelve!!! We are entering into a new world of young womens, firesides, and girls camp fundraisers. I can't believe we are already at this point with Kelsey, but I am excited for the adventures that await her as a young woman!

I had decided that it was due time to throw Kelsey a birthday party, since it had been a few years since she has had one. I had been collecting some purses when I came across a cute one and decided that would be the theme of her party. I wrapped those purses up and we used them to play a game with them at the party where each girl ended up winning a purse to bring home. I patterned this game after the white elephant gift exchange like you play at Christmas time. If you haven't played before, this is what we did:

We placed two sets of dice each in separate pie tins. The girls would roll the dice to try and get doubles, then pass them on. If they got doubles, they got to grab a wrapped purse from the pile in the middle of the circle. Once all the presents were passed out, they could steal a present from someone else. We then had any girl with more than present pass their extra to another girl who didn't have one and we opened them up. We then played the game for 5 more minutes were they could trade their purse with anyone else's purse if they rolled doubles.

The game was a hit and even those who were disappointed that they didn't get their favorite purse seemed to be happy anyway.

The invitations for the party were little paper purses that opened up to show the party details and instead of making Kelsey a cake, I made the birthday cake part of the party activity. I made a ton of small, round cakes that we cut in half and propped up and decorate like a purse. After getting sick of making round ones, I did use my bread pans and make a few that were rectangular as well.

I gave each girl a cup of icing and had out trays of candies and licorice to use decorate their cake to look like a purse. The girls really came up with some creative designs and had fun with this activity as well.

I had forgotten to mention the rare occasion that occurred during the party. It actually hailed for a few minutes, so we had the girls go outside to check it out. Of course that calls for an impromptu jump on the trampoline to see the hail bounce.

The party was a big hit and all 15 girls had a great time! The only thing that would have made it better, is if Afton, Liesel, and Gwyneth could have attended!

Another highlight of our weekend was that Keri Paxman was able to spend the whole weekend with us. It was so fantastic to see how these girls, who have been friends since Kelsey was 1 and Keri was 6 months old, could pick up were they left off the last time they saw each other as if no time had passed at all. It was so great to see them reunited! The girls really seemed to eat up all the time they had together and enjoyed each moment they had. The girls even included me in on their fun Saturday night and we stayed up late telling stories that made us laugh and remembering fun things we had done together in the past. It was a lot of fun hearing Keri's distinct giggle in our home again. I have really missed having her around!

After dropping Keri off at home on Sunday night, it was time to head home and pack Kelsey up for her next adventure. She was leaving for Outdoor school the next morning and would be gone for her actual birthday on Tuesday.

Kelsey's actual birthday was strange this year. While at outdoor school, we were not allowed to call her. I was able to send her a fax and had many other friends and family members send her some as well, but I had to wait till Friday to hear about her adventures at outdoor school and hear how her birthday was. These adventures will be saved for another post, however, since it has taken me a week of trying now and then to get blogger to upload pictures and get them to "stick" within my post. I finally had to upload only on or two at a time to get it to work!