Maia's 4th Birthday Party

On July 27th, we had a birthday party for Maia. It was well-attended by friends, and totally worth all the effort of cleaning our house and organizing activities. I don't know though, our good friends had a party for their daughter at Rollandia (a Chuck E. Cheese kind of place,) and it seemed painfully easy. We may go that route next year. After all, I don't want all of Maia's birthday memories to be tainted by a screaming, crazy version of her mother, which, unfortunately, is what happens to me right before all her birthday parties. I could give examples, but lest you all think I'm a terrible person, let's just go directly to the pictures.

This is Maia opening her presents. She took the job very seriously and had her 7 year old friend read all the cards for her. It took forever to get through all of them, but it was sweet.

She saw the princess hat and wanted it for her birthday. I think she looks quite fetching.

Our theme this year was "Backyardigans Princess." As you can see, the cake had a princess hat and all the colors of all the Backyardigans. I wanted to incorporate both themes as much as I could, and I think it worked out. Of course, if you're not familiar with the Backyardigans, it looks completely random.

A few of Maia's friends enjoying pizza and juice boxes around our living room table.

Our back yard was once again transformed into a children's party paradise.

Our Ikea couches for downstairs had just been delivered a few days before, so I saved the cardboard for the kids to color on with markers. It went over quite well with the under 7 set. Now that I'm a stay-home mom, I have time to come up with these kinds of innovative ideas.

Our other craft activity was "make your own sun-visor or tiara." The kids got to glue gemstones and foam pictures all by themselves. They really seemed to enjoy it.

Surprisingly, Tai was happy to be passed around from person to person during the party. It was nice for Yoshi and me to have time to mingle. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Overall, everyone had a great time, and we're already looking forward to next year. Now, don't even ask me what we're planning to do for Tai's party, which is in the middle of the winter. Our house is too small for inviting everyone without using our backyard. And yet...it seems impossible to trim the guest list. Good thing we have a few months to think about it...