Avery's 6th Birthday - Unicorn Magic!

Yesterday was a big day. And to be honest, my house is still a mess. But I wanted to write about Avery's magical unicorn birthday before I forget.

First of all, let me just start by saying that about two weeks ago I wasn't even sure if I was going to throw her a big party this year or just go somewhere as a family and call it good. But then when I was teaching my 10-11 year olds Sunday school class, we were talking about pets and one girl mentioned her family had two white miniature ponies. This family just moved into our ward so I didn't really know much about them. But I said, "You should put unicorn horns on them and say they are unicorns!" and she said "We have done that before!" So then I said, "How would you like to help me have a unicorn birthday party for my daughter?" And that's how the idea was born... lol

So I texted her mom and we decided it would be easier for them to just have the party in their backyard. They have a big backyard and they only live just down the road from us, but that way they wouldn't have to load up the horses and figure out where to tie them up at my house, etc. So I made the invitations and started the planning about a week ago! Here is the invite I made:

Then we had to figure out how many little girls to actually invite. I really wanted to keep it smaller this year so the list started out with 6 including Avery. Then it grew a little and we ended up with 9 little girls, plus of course Gabe and Caleb, plus then we had one of the girl's older sisters (Katelyn, who lives across the street and is in Gabe's class) come and help do some face painting with Kenzie (the girl in my Sunday school class who started this whole idea. lol) So there ended up being quite a few people partying in that backyard. The family that lived there also had some of their kids coming in and out and helping and playing too. It really went pretty smoothly though! Josh even said later, "I was skeptical about having it over there but it actually went really well." (Like he should EVER doubt me.)

I went over there at about 12:30 and started setting up decorations and games. Then I went back and got Avery and the family and went back over and finished setting up. When I went back ti get the family and I was getting everything loaded up in the car, Avery all of a sudden started crying and I said, "What's the matter?" and she said, "We forgot to do my nails!!!" She had been asking me to repaint her nails for the past two days and I kept saying we would before her party. So I quickly ran upstairs and got my gold nail polish and did a quick nail redo as she was sitting in the car and we were all waiting to go. She is such a girlie girl. I mean, I wouldn't want my nails to look crappy for my big day either, so I get it.

So anyways, we got over there and finished setting everything up (the tables, the games, the bouncy house..) The girls arrived at 2:00 and it lasted until 3:30. I think it was the perfect amount of time. We started off by doing a few pictures with the "unicorns". The unicorns were really mostly interested in eating the grass the whole time so it was hard to get a decent picture with them. But here are a couple we got:

After we got a couple of group pictures, we started off with some games. I always, in my mind, think that I'm going to plan these amazing structured activities and everyone is just going to love them. But in reality, they really only like a couple of structured activities and then just want to have time to play. So we did three somewhat organized things. The first was a game where I took Josh's traffic cones and wrapped streamers around them to make them look like "unicorn horns" and the game was "lasso the unicorn horns" where they threw a cool hoop around the cones.

Next, we did a piñata. Every girl got at least two rounds of hitting it. Then we invited Gabe and Caleb to take a turn and then candy flew! The girls all ran to pick up candy and I had little bags ready for them with their names on them. Each girl also got a unicorn horn headband, a little unicorn rubber duck toy, play doh, and a couple other little things in their bag. After the piñata, we did the "pin the horn on the unicorn" game.

                                       

A few pictures of the decor and gift bags...

Once we finished those three games, we turned on the water bouncy house slide and just let them play on that and jump on the trampoline for about a half hour. This was probably the highlight. It was about 90 degrees and sunny so I think they were excited to cool off! It was kind of hard to keep Caleb off the slide, so eventually we just game up and let him slide down it too. Luckily it didn't pop! Meanwhile, we also had faceprinting going on so the girls would go back and forth and get that done too. Katelyn so was so sweet to come and volunteer to do that. Part of it may have had to do with Gabe. I'm pretty sure she has a little crush. ;)

Once they all were done with their face painting/tattoos and jumped for a while on the tramp and bouncy house thing, we gathered them up for cake and present opening. I wish I could say I remembered who gave what but it all happened so fast, I honestly have no idea. Avery's cake was a Walmart special... hence why it looks weird. I usually have this girl named Ashley do their cakes and they have always been AMAZING but she said she couldn't do it this year because she had something going on. I was so sad! So I thought, "Well I will buy a cake topper with the horn and ears and all they have to do is make a white cake with some flowers on top!" Buuut... it still turned out kind of weird looking. The girls all though it was really cool though so I guess when you're six it's easy to impress you. 

So that was the party! At about 3:45 everyone had left and we got everything cleaned up pretty quickly. We did have to make two trips to get everything (including the inflatable slide) back home. We had borrowed that from our neighbor so we just took that straight back to them. The once we got home and got a little bit cleaned up, we let Avery open her presents from us and from grandma sue and "Poppy" (aka: my dad). She got some Hatchimals, two Hatchimals games, some Magic Tracks, unicorn pajamas (which she picked out and I let her wear last night). some little princesses, and then a ton of things from girls at her party, including a unicorn toy, a Barbie, a blanket, and lots of other things. I think she is quite the spoiled girl. After dinner we went for a walk and she sat and played with one of her new unicorn toys. Then we got home and went to bed and now she is down there with Caleb still playing again. I don't think my house will be clean again for about a week. I keep trying to put things away and they keep coming out again. Oh well. 

And that marks the end of "Birthday Season" in the Rhodes home. Phew. See you again starting March 23, 2019.