Strawberry 5th Birthday Party!

Kamdyn's Birthday Outfit from Lollipops and Gumdrops Boutique.  All 5 of her birthday outfits have been ordered from this awesome website! 

Our most excited birthday girl just moments before her guests arrived!  She had just time enough to get home from soccer, get a bath, blow dry her hair, get dressed, and walk outside before everyone started arriving!

Kamdyn's birthday party was such fun this year!  We decided to have a Strawberry Party for her, but not to be confused with a Strawberry Shortcake Party.  :)  Richard thinks that I go WAY overboard for her parties, but I get in teacher thematic mode and ideas just flow!  I have so much fun planning her parties.  Being 31 weeks pregnant this year challenged me a little bit when it was actually time to set up and pull everything together.  The wind was quite a bit of of a challenge, too!  The wind gusts kept us on our toes ALL day; however, the wind was much better than rain!  Thankfully, Richard and Kamdyn were at soccer on Saturday morning.  Nanny and I were busy at work putting out tables, chairs, decorations, table cloths, picking up balloons, flowers, cakes, etc.  I couldn't have done it without her! 

Happy Birthday Sweet Kamdyn!  I can hardly believe that you are 5 years old.  You make your Daddy and me so proud!    

Uncle Jim and Daddy just got back from putting balloons on our street sign to direct our guests to the Strawberry Party!

The Grand Table

Supplies for the Strawberry Hunt including pretend strawberries, containers for collecting strawberries, strawberry sunglasses for the girls to help the "find" the strawberries fast, and green/red glasses to help the boys.  I had to be sure to be gender sensitive when purchasing items for this party!  :) 

We did have to go with a Strawberry Shortcake castle because there wasn't just a strawberry castle.

The awesome cake that was created by Jennifer's Cakes in North Augusta with pictures and LOTS of input from me!  Words can't describe how delicious this cake was.  A lot of time pretty cakes do not taste all that good.  This was quite the opposite.  The top layer was regular yellow cake.  The middle tier was strawberry cake with strawberry filling.  The bottom tier was chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse.  To. Die. For!  We are still eating the bottom tier!

The Strawberry Planting Station - The children decorated their own flower pots with their printed out names along with strawberry stickers.  Crayons and markers were provided, too.  Last, we planted a strawberry plant and added a tag that said, "You were berry sweet to come to my party.  Love, Kamdyn."

 

 

Flower pots up close.

The only two boys at the party were the first to arrive!  We were so happy that they came!

Then, more children arrived for a grand total of 13.  I planned for 20.  Whatever happened to people regretting like the invitation says?

Having fun on the playset!  Thankfully, Richard's construction help up with all 13 kids hanging from it!

Decorating pots!

The kids were so intent on creating a beautiful pot!

We had help from our Strawberry Cuties....Ana Blake and Payton. Ms. Denise, Nanny, and Aunt Kathy were having fun, too!

Mama Lucy and Ruthie made the trek to North Augusta for the grand affair, too!

Time to hunt for strawberries!

They were surprisingly kind of hard to find in the grass!

Check out those cute strawberry glasses!  :)

It was a race to find the most, even though there wasn't a prize!  It was all in FUN!

Kamdyn's two favorite 6 year olds - Catherine and Jacob.

Group Shot - Kamdyn is such a lucky little girl to have so many attend her party!

Time for the food - peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches, fresh strawberries with strawberry dip, chex mix, and strawberry Capri Sun. 

Time to make a wish and sing Happy Birthday.  Unfortunately, the wind did not cooperate.  We never got the candles lit!  Kamdyn was a little upset by this at first, but quickly got over it!

For some reason we do not have photos of the pinata or the breaking of the pinata.  The kids had fun hitting the pinata.  Unfortunately, they never could hit it hard enough to make it break.  Richard gladly took his turn busting the pinata open.  Prizes and candy flew everywhere!  The kids collected in their prize bags!  Last, Kamdyn opened presents!

The kids surrounded Kamdyn to see what she got!

She had to read every card!

Sonya and Jacob

Richard and Ruthie!  Richard passed his camera duties off to my precious friend and teaching assistant, Maggie.  Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of her.  I guess because she was busy taking pictures for us!  Thank you, Sweet Maggie!

Something had her tickled!  I think it may have been Nanny's "knock knock joke" card!

Catherine whispered in my ear during the party and said, "This is her BEST PARTY EVER!"

Kamdyn had to take a break from opening presents to give some love to Georgia.

and to Nanny!

My sweet Mama and me!  I covered that baby bump up!!  31 weeks and  counting!

The Grand Gift from Mommy and Daddy - a brand new Barbie Bike!

She tried it out and apparently explained to everyone that the training wheels were not level to help her learn to ride without training wheels!  :)

Family photo after the party clean up!

Uncle Jim!

Saying goodbye to Ruthie!

and to Mama Lucy!

Then, we were back to the jumping castle.

They were supposed to pick it up that afternoon at 5 PM; however, they asked if they could pick it up after church on Sunday.  Fortunately for us, they didn't come until late on MONDAY afternoon.  Kamdyn was beginning to think that the jumping castle was a birthday present, too!

Mommy had a lot of fun finding spaces for all of these wonderful new gifts!  Kamdyn is one blessed little girl!  I am so thankful that we were able to have such a wonderful 5th birthday party for her prior to her little sister's arrival!