The Careys: Ava's 5th Birthday Party

Ava's birthday party was a blast!

The birthday girl turns FIVE!

When I asked her where she wanted to have it this year, she kept saying "at home, in our back yard". Last year, it was SO CHILLY outside on her birthday. It also seems we spend just as much money on a non-home birthday party. We went through the list... Monkey Joe's? Jeronimo's? Chuck E. Cheese? She was happy with Monkey Joe's. I had forgotten about her day care going to the skating rink, but when I remembered, I asked her if she wanted to have her party there. She was super happy about having the party at the roller rink. We struggled with the "how many people do we invite?" question... To include school friends, or not to include school friends. The school's policy asks that if one classmate is invited that all be invited.

At first I'm sure people thought we were crazy...A skating rink party for a 5 year-old? How many five year-olds have been skating? (Ava's been twice before this party). It couldn't have worked out more perfect, actually! Sparkles Roller Rink in Kennesaw has a soft play area perfect for little ones. The skating rink is concrete, so they allow most skates (including the over-the-shoe Fisher Price type). Ava brought her adjustable skates. I bought a pair for Liam, too, so he wouldn't be left out. See pictures below for his first run with the skates... ;-)

When we arrived, Ava, Liam and Doug all did a few loops around the rink. It was cute to watch them all skate together. They got to skate to the Black-Eyed Peas "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night," one of Ava and Liam's favorites. After 10 minutes or so, Ava and Liam played in the soft play area (3 levels or so?) for most of the time. The kids had a blast. On Monday at school, I told Veer's Mom thank you for letting him come to the party. She said Veer had so much fun. When she asked him how fun it was, on a scale of 1 to 1000, he said "6,000." Cute. :)

For quite a few of the kids, it was their first time on skates. Matthew, Olivia, Veer, Avery, Alana, Mekhi and Liam had their first skating rink experience. This was Ava's third time skating. I don't think she fell once?

Party attendees included:
Veer (from school)
Sara (from school)
Avery (from school)
Lily
Mekhi
Ryan-Ashton
Kylyn
Alana
Parker
Caleb
Zoey (neighbor)
Lucy (neighbor)
Olivia (neighbor)
Nicholas (neighbor)
Matthew (neighbor)
Liam

It was a good thing we had the party indoors. It rained the entire day and hasn't seemed to stop since! Ava wanted a princess cupcake / cake combo with whipped icing from Sam's Club. Everyone seemed to enjoy the cake. It was yummy! Ava helped with the labels for the goodie bags, printing her friend's name on each one, drawing a happy face on it, as well.

I made different colored chocolate roller skate suckers, too. It was an afterthought, but I was able to order the molds from a place in New Jersey in time. They arrived on Friday night, so I was able to QUICKLY make the suckers for the party the next morning. The kids seemed to enjoy them. Ava took the left-overs to school on Monday. Because these suckers were an afterthought, I wasn't too stressed about them getting here on time. Between not stressing about sucker molds and not needing the house to be spic-and-span for a birthday party, it was nice. The only requirement: Cake and showing up at the roller rink with goodie bags. Bonus!

After the party seemed to be well-controlled, I decided to go for a few laps around the rink myself. So I put on the rental skates and did my thang. I ended-up ALMOST falling when I switched from skating backward to forward. Lucky me, Doug got it on tape. :) It is pretty different skating on concrete than on wooden floors. I felt like I was going to fall at any minute, the wheels were so fast on the concrete! Other parents (Christy Craig, Melissa Baillairge and Amy Hoffman) seemed to have fun on skates, as well. It seemed like everyone was able to enjoy themselves. Even our neighbor friend Zoey was able to enjoy the play area with some help from her mama (Kristi).

After the party, we opened gifts at home while Liam was sleeping. We didn't want him to be TOO upset about Ava's gifts. Poor thing, he doesn't understand why he isn't getting the same number of gifts. :(

Peace, love and FIVE birthday candles!
Shelly, Doug, the birthday girl and Liam

Trying out his skates pre-party, minus pajama pants?

Bedhead Liam missing his pajama pants

Party favors

Ava helped with the invitations and inserts. She signed each of them "Love, Ava".
This was her first attempt at a comma. ;-)
She also wrote out each of the labels for her friends' goodie bags.
After opening her gifts, she also wrote out the thank you cards.
Tough work for a just-turned-five year-old!