My Baby Turns FOUR!

So my little angel Kylie turned FOUR the other day! I can't believe how time flies! Just four years ago I was cuddling my first newborn. I remember the day like it was yesterday! She was born at 3:54 in the morning weighing only 7lb 6oz. and now look at her!

So this year she had her first official birthday party! We always celebrate of course, but we've always had just family and very close friends of ours come. This time I invited all the kids in her preschool and some of the kids in her primary class (I would have invited all of them, but sadly I don't know many of them! So only those who happen to have made it last Sunday received an invitation). These are the invitations I made.

I unfortunately did not keep one for myself, so I had to get my moms invitation back to take a picture of it. To make it a little more girlie I added glitter around the window and headlights. The Little Einstein characters are actually stickers for the kids to play with, although I'm not sure anyone figured it out. I'm wishing I'd would have written it on the invitation.

A good friend pointed out to me that my invitations said 1:00 AM not PM! I was so upset! I blamed Mike completely! See, I was planning on having it around 11:00 or so in the morning but Mike ended up throwing a fit. I had a cousin getting married that morning and he didn't want to have to rush home. My plan was to have the party early than possibly be able to make it to her luncheon at 1:00. Mike turned out to be right though. It would have been quite the headache to rush back home and get everything set up had I had the party earlier.

As always, I made her birthday cake! Keeping with the Little Einstein theme, I made Rocket. I thought it turned out cute. The windows are made out of Airheads, the headlights jaw breakers, Twizzler Pull-In-Peel licorice outlined everything, and the propellers on the rocket were made of Shockers and red M&M's. I did however have a little trouble with it. I ended up having to prop up the rockets made of Twinkies on the side with toothpicks. I had really wanted to get edible stickers for the Little Einsteins, but I really wasn't sure where to go. Walmart could only do it if I put in on one of their cakes since they had no way of charging me otherwise.

Me and my four year old angel!

So I'm a cheapskate! I wanted to have party hats, but I really wanted some that went along with the Little Einstein theme which could only be found online. So I made my own. They were meant to resemble the antenna on Rocket. I thought they turned out cute! I just wish I could have figured out a better way to make them, the string kept coming off.

So this should really show you how cheap I am! I made the pinata! I of course wanted a pinata to go along with the party, but they were all around $20! I figured spending 20 bucks on something that was meant to be broken and thrown away was the biggest waste of money! So I got online and figured out how to make my own. I ended up putting a little too many layers on it; the kids were having trouble even putting a dent in it! Very fun to watch though! Instead of having all the candy fall out and have children crying because so and so got more than she did, I divided up the goodies and put them in individual bags so they'd all get one bag. I also threw in some bouncy balls so they'd have something to chase. Didn't quite work on the carpet. There was also a treasure map hidden in it leading to different parts of the world.

Here's the birthday girl taking the first swing at it.

And little sister giving it a try. She mostly just smiled and gave it a light tap with the bat.

This is my 'car like' version of Rocket. I mainly wanted them for the treasure hunt. I was trying to make it just like the show where they get in their rocket, tap their lap and say, "Blast off" just like the Little Einsteins. I bought them all crayons back when they were super cheap at the beginning of the school year, and let them color away on them. They came complete with seat belts, literally. I bought some buckles on eBay to resemble the seat belts on the show.

Here they are in the little rockets just as we're about to venture off around the world for all the puzzle pieces to lead us to the treasure!

And their off! Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower in Pairs. Next we traveled to the Statue of Liberty, and then off to the Egyptian Pyramids. Finally ending at the Great Wall of China! I had hoped to blow up pictures of these places to a poster size, but it was around 20 bucks a poster! No way was going to spend that much on EACH poster when it was just going to get thrown away afterwards! So they had to settle for a paper sized printout.

Here's Kylie with one of the puzzle pieces. After finding all the pieces, they had to put the puzzle together. It then showed a picture of where the treasure was hidden.

They found the treasure!

Here's what the treasure was.

If your familiar with the show, you'll know it's very musically inclined. So the party favors were filled with musical instruments and a few more goodies.

Now it's time for candles and presents! I thought this was such a cute picture of Kylie and her cake!

This picture cracks me up! This is Kylie with her best friend Brock. If by chance you don't follow me on facebook, let me again tell how much Kylie adores Brock! One day Kylie got off the bus in tears! The bus driver said she couldn't figure out what was wrong, that maybe she's just not feeling well. She LOVES the bus and having her crying was very out of the blue. So I took her inside and asked her what was wrong. Through her tears she manged to tell me that Brock was not on the bus. He was sick and didn't even go to school that day. My poor girl was heartbroken! I of course couldn't stop smiling, it was just too cute!

Kylie opening her gifts.

Can't forget about the little sister.

I just thought this was a neat picture. Judy took the liberty of taking over my camera for me, and I'm ever so grateful she did! I would have gotten very few pictures had I been in charge of it.

Too cute!

Since I still do not have a table with enough chairs for anyone other than my family, I decided to have the kids eat on the floor. I taped two plastic tablecloths together and let them enjoy the cake and ice cream on my living room floor.

Kylie and Aunt Kelly.

I also served juice. Mike is on a nutrition kick and all soda has been banned from the house! Okay, that's not really the reason, I just didn't want to deal with spilled drinks, so these worked out perfect!

Kylie had a great birthday and was so happy to have her friends come over. When she woke up that morning and we wished her a happy birthday, she told us it wasn't her birthday because her friends weren't here! She's always giving us a good laugh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLIE!!!