Candy Buffet Birthday Party

This year I asked Maddie what she wanted to do for her friend birthday party.  At first she decided on a "pajama party" but when she made the decision to invite some boys that idea was quickly vetoed.  I had told she could pick to either have a co-ed party or do a girls only pajama party.  Well...of course she picked the co-ed party and so we thew together a "Swimming" themed party.  The one request she did make was for a "candy buffet".  I didn't even know what that was until she told me she wanted one.  I even asked her what it was, and she went on to describe it as a fancy table with "different sizes of glass jars with different colors of candy inside them."  At that point I googled the words and lo and behold she was right.  I am not sure if my daughter is really only five years old; sometimes I feel like she is five going on sixteen.  Either way, I felt like I had to at least put some effort forth to fulfill her one birthday wish.  We searched several different stores in search of semi-cheap candy to supply and I have to admit I thought that it turned out rather well.  Plus the kids seem to all enjoy it as well :)

We ended up inviting a boat load of people to her party.  She has had several play groups over the years, preschool friends, school friends, neighbor friends and finally primary friends.  I think we ended up with approximately 20 some odd kids at our house that day.  Even though it was quite chaotic, they all had a really good time and no one got hurt (yeah!).  We borrowed my good friends bounce water slide and blew up our inflatable pool.  We even pulled out water balloons with the intention of having a water fight, but the kids were so busy playing we didn't need any other entertainment.

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After playing for awhile, we dried off and then had cake and ice cream followed by present time.  Maddie was so excited to have so many of her good friends there and afterwards she said "Mom, this was my most favorite party ever".  Success!!  Thank goodness we have until February before we have to do another party at our house!

 Cute cousin Kaylin pausing for a photo op

 Crazy kids walking up the slide :)

 Eli wasn't too thrilled with being in the water, but he did enjoy drinking Capri Suns pool side!

 This picture of Maddie pouring water out of the fireman hat down herself cracks me up.  Perhaps if I can ever manage to get Photoshop working on my computer, I would love to crop this one in closer....

"Heavy heavy hang over thy poor head.  What do you wish this giver with a bump on the head?"

Maddie wished for almost all the kids to come over and play at her house another time.  Nice try little Missy!

And later after all the other friends had left: Maddie, Robby, Kaylin and Aleisa had a great time playing in the deflated pool.

 Party attendees: Maddie, Robby, Kaylin, Makenna, Emma, Charity, Peyton, Delaney, Kailey, Sarah, Stella, Jude, Braden, Bradley, Jaren, Abby, Ellie, Madeline, Hallie, Fiona, Zoey, Mequell, Aleisa, to name a few :)