Last Saturday, we celebrated Brielle's 6th birthday! She wanted to have her party at Pump It Up, which is really fun. The party starts in one private playroom, then moves to another, then the kids gather in a party room for food and presents. It's really organized and assisted by "party hosts" who help with setup and cleanup. Parents love it because they can relax and watch as their kids play. We've been to other parties where the party group is just one of many in a large venue and it's pretty chaotic. But Brielle's party was really fun and easy, and all the kids had a great time.
Brielle's birthday fell on the first weekend of spring break, so some of her friends couldn't come. But she was excited to see the ones who came and didn't complain.
Ronan was really excited about Brielle's decision to celebrate at Pump It Up. He loves jumping, sliding, and playing with balls in the bouncy houses. Daddy helped him bounce really high.
When Brielle was a toddler, we were always impressed with how well she could "hold her own" when placed in physical play situations with older kids. Of course, she was very big for her age. Ronan is probably more average-sized, but he has that same brave spirit and just jumps into the action.
In fact, we think that he thinks he IS a big kid. He doesn't seem to have any sense that he's not the same age and size as the bigger kids and joins in easily.
Brielle also loves including Ronan when she plays. It's so sweet that they love each other so much and Brielle isn't yet to the age where she rejects him in favor of playing with friends because she thinks he's too young (or at least I'm assuming that could happen some day).
Daddy and Ronan go down (as Ronan likes to say...) "the BIG one!"
In the party room, the kids enjoyed vegan cupcakes and ice cream and other snacks. Brielle requested a mermaid-themed party, so we added some elements to go with the theme: Ariel mermaid balloons, stuffed toy ocean friends on the table, fish-shaped pretzels, cupcakes decorated with gummy sharks (the only ocean-themed gummy I could find) and stars, and a large clam shell filled with party favors.
Brielle's friends watched as she opened their gifts. This toy cat was one of her favorites (named "Chloe").
Then it was time to go home to open gifts from family.
Brielle received some amazing gifts from her very generous and thoughtful family members.
And even though she was starting to get tired, she dutifully posed with each gift so I could take photos for email thank-you messages.
We're fortunate that Brielle isn't a kid who is constantly asking for things. That made it a little challenging to come up with her hint list, but it's nice that she's not materially-oriented at this point. However, one thing she became almost obsessed about was getting a "real mermaid tail". For days before her birthday she drew pictures of everyone in our family wearing mermaid tails. Here are two of my favorite drawings...she dreams of an Amazon box arriving...
Luckily, her dream came true...Introducing Brielle the mermaid! She posed for a photo right before trying out the tail in the hot tub. No, we didn't get tails for everyone in the family, but she was still a happy girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment