Kids' Birthday Party

With Evelyn's help, I planned a beach-themed kids' birthday party for this evening. Since a movie was part of the festivities, we invited the guests to wear their pajamas and bring slumber party comforts like sleeping bags and stuffed animals.

At 5:00, the party started with some art in the kitchen. The girls made octopus artwork with finger paints, and coloring sheets (with beach pictures) and markers abounded. After everyone had a chance to paint an octopus, the girls enjoyed pizza and juice boxes.

Following dinner, the girls made glittery flower necklaces, and then everyone played a dancing game in the living room. As you can see from the picture below, Julia got in on the action, too.
After dancing their sillies out, everyone settled down to watch "The Little Mermaid" and snack on popcorn. Just about everyone was hypnotized by the Disney flick and watched the entire movie from start to finish.

What was missing from the party? Ah, yes, the singing of "Happy Birthday" and eating cake! Evelyn and I came up with the idea of making cupcakes that had the ocean (blue frosting) and a sandy beach (brown sugar). We stuck a palm tree umbrella into each cupcake, and each guest had their own beachy-keen cupcake.

After the last cupcake was devoured, the party went back to the living room for a round of the game, "What time is it, Mr. Octopus?" This is a very exciting, loud game, which startled some of the parents when they came to pick up the girls. It seemed like everyone had a good time, especially the birthday girl.