Birthday week!

Evelyn turned 6 on Thursday! 

She had a fun day at school and got to bring in blue and red Jello cups.  At home she asked for chocolate cupcakes with "sand colored frosting, pearls, and seashells."  I was glad I only had to make 6!

She was excited for her crystal growing kit and Shopkins.  What a beautiful 6 yr old she is!  She enjoyed her birthday for sure, but she knew the real excitement was happening two days later!  A mermaid party!

We do a 6 yr old party and Evelyn's just happened to be ON Lydia's birthday.  Lydia is 11!  Her age has officially exceeded her number of fingers.  Thanks for helping out, Isaac.

Lydia got a nail art kit and a new toiletry bag with money in it.  

Ahh, the party!  Lydia got to invite her best friend over too so it all worked out.  Isaac got to invite a friend over as well so as not to have to suffer through mermaid girliness.

Here's our snacks (sorry, lousy lighting).  Gummy octopi from Brisbane, egg salad sandwiches (just cuz they were easy), banana dolphins in a watermelon sea, and a red pepper octopus with hummus and cucumbers and the cake!

The mermaid cake, decorated according to Evelyn's specifications.  (Those shells are from Mike and my Dominican Republic trip so many years ago.  I have never found prettier shells anywhere!)

Since it was actually Lydia's birthday, she got to choose the flavor: a chocolate layer (that's where the rest of the chocolate cupcake batter went) between two vanilla layers, with buttercream and strawberry jam filling.  Man, that was a good cake, even if I say so myself!  

At the party we made hair clips with blue felt, seashell beads, and pearls and we decorated mermaid cutouts with markers and sequins.  Lydia and Billie.

Then after a rousing game of pin the tentacle on the octopus we had a special surprise visitor!  

Yasmin the mermaid was sweet and beautiful!  She chatted with the girls and read them a story and was just a lot of fun!  

And it's been affirmed that 8 years old is not too young for boys to turn into total idiots when there's a pretty girl around.  Thankfully Mike took Isaac and his friend to play chess in the other room. 

That night we brought out the girls' last presents in theme of the mermaid party: monofins in their favorite colors!  (Lucky for me those were the ONLY colors!). We may have to hit the heated community pool soon to give them a try.

Happy birthday to my beautiful girls!