Five fingers. One whole hand. This girl is finally (finally!) five years old! I’m not quite sure what she thought would be so magical about being five, but my goodness, her excitement level for this specific birthday has been off the chart for months. We were relieved and excited when Saturday finally rolled around so that we could celebrate her little life with a whole day ‘o fun!
At 6:15, she came barreling into our room ready to start the day! She had a pretty good cough, so after sipping/spilling a little cough medicine, we made our way into the kitchen to check out the goods.
First up: presents! She’s at an age where almost anything will make her happy and squeal as loud as she can. This made it pretty easy to please her!
Hadley actually did a pretty remarkable job letting Sadie be involved with her new toys, and Sadie did an A- job of not snatching things from Hadley and claiming it as hers. 😉 Seeing the girls play well together is probably one of the things that brings me the most joy in my life right now. For some reason, this site always stops me in my tracks and makes me smile. The opposite is also true; Nothing sends me on the crazy train faster like hearing them argue over toys. Oy. Overall, they did super well throughout the day discovering the new toys together!
Breakfast was Hadley’s choice, and of course she wanted a pink doughnut. She remembered our family birthday plate before we did and asked for it as soon as she saw us getting breakfast together.
After a few hours of playing, my in-laws arrived after driving 17 hours straight through the night from Austin. Whew. They were bright-eyed though and ready to party with the kids. My brother also arrived from Birmingham, so Hadley and Sadie were in relative Heaven.
This was the first year that Hadley 100% wanted a party. We did a tiny family party for her first birthday, a small princess/horse party for her third birthday, but skipped parties for various reasons for her 2nd and 4th birthdays. This year though, she knew that birthdays equaled parties. She’s been to so many for her friends, so she couldn’t wait to have her own.
Thankfully she wasn’t particular about what we did for the party as long as her friends were there, which was helpful for me! Figuring out her party was a little tricky though. I knew I didn’t want to have it at our house since we’d likely be inside due to probable cold weather in November, and the idea of spending Hadley’s birthday cleaning, setting up, entertaining 40 people, then cleaning up again, etc. just did not seem super appealing to me this year. On the other hand, I priced having a party at a kids place for roughly 15-20 kids, and most places would have run me $500-$600 for the room, entertainment, and finger food. GOOD GRACIOUS PETE. No ma’am.
I finally figured out what to do after reading Kaity’s blog, who mentioned an indoor swim party. AHA! That’s it! So I called our local YMCA, took a tour of what they offered, and was sold. The cost was a tad bit cheaper than most other places, the room was huge, and the indoor splash pad area was fantastic.
Since the party was from 1-3 p.m. (I had very limited times to choose from), we did an ice cream social instead of lunch food. We also had chips, fruit, and water bottles for the adults.
While some relatives helped us set up, Hadley sat in the hallway and ridiculously pouted that her friends weren’t arriving early. Poor girl. 😉
Since unicorns are having such a moment right now for Hadley (and seemingly every single girl her age), we did a unicorn cake from Edgar’s. Delicious!
We did ice cream, cake, and presents throughout the first 45 minutes of the party, and then cleaned up to head to the pool! We were actually going to swim first and then do the food, but thank goodness my mother-in-law mentioned right before the party started that maybe we should do it the other way around. I’m soooo glad she suggested that because it worked much better! In hindsight, we would have never gotten the kids out of the pool!
How adorable is this splash pad/shallow pool area? We aren’t members at this facility, but I sure wish we were so that we could come up here year-round!
Such a fish. These kids had themselves a heyday!
Having my brother David come up to join us was awesome. He hasn’t gotten to be around his nieces a ton since we’ve always lived so far apart, so living close enough where he could drive up for the day for the party was wonderful and meant a lot to me (and Hadley).
I love this cute pic of Hadley and my MIL!
Once we got home, we unpacked from the party as fast as we could and then pretty much collapsed until bedtime. Hadley enjoyed a few quiet hours playing with her toys, we ordered pizza in, and called it a night pretty early.
All in all, a wonderful, celebratory day!
Let’s chat!
Which of your kids’ birthday parties would you consider the best one you’ve ever paid for/put together? I’ll need some ideas for the future!
More: A First Birthday Letter to my First Born, Hadley’s 1st birthday, 2nd birthday, 3rd birthday party, and 4th birthday
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Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo