Pajama Party for Girl6

I know that I write a lot of posts about my daughter. She is great fodder for a mama-blogger.

Her birthday party? A class all of its own. 

For the last six months or so, Yael has been planning her birthday party. We decided early on that she would have a pajama party. Before you get all excited, note that I didn't say a "sleepover" or even an "undernighter." Yael's party was from 3:30-4:30pm, it was purely a party in which people wear pajamas. It was pajama-themed. 

That wasn't the part that Yael planned. The biggest deal for her was the guest list. In our house, you get to invite (approximately) the same number of guests as the years of your age. She had to narrow her list down to six friends. For weeks...nay, for months...she has been writing and re-writing the list. She takes the school Buzz Book and reads the names. She has spelled the names. She has decorated the names. 

When the time came to make the final list (that is, send out the evite), she was absolutely ready. In fact, I think everyone in the house could recite the list of guests!

Remarkably, all of her guests were available. I try so hard to convey to the other parents the full weight of this invitation from her. She chose so carefully! I so appreciate that the other parents "got it."

Yael wanted chocolate cupcakes.

Decorated with pink frosting.

And sprinkles.

"And everyone's initials on their cupcake, mom. Because I can tell you everyone's initials."

So often, parties are about the guest of honor. To Yael, it was very much about making all of her guests feel special and welcome and important. And that is one of the things that makes her so special. 

So we decorated them all with initials. 

The rest of the party went off as expected. There were our usual party games, like "pin the pillow on the bed" and relay races and hot potato (played with a bedroom slipper). There were bedtime stories, most of which were about...well...bedtime. The Abba Sababa led the group in some "bedtime calisthenics" which were hilarious as usual. And of course, we ate cupcakes and had general chaotic wonderful birthdayness. And even Michael and I wore our jammies!

It was fairly perfect in Yael's mind.

I think she's already planning for next year.

Birthday Soiree: A Fancy Nancy Party

Ooh la la...I thought it would be fun to have a Fancy Nancy party for Yael's 5th birthday...and I was right!

Here's what we did:

Everyone arrived and "got fancy." It ended up with only girls (even though we had invited one boy) and all of them came in their fancy dresses. We gave each girl a crown and necklace.

Yael and her first guest waiting for the rest to arrive...

Then we did "fancy calisthenics." At all of our parties, Michael leads the kids in some kind of "exercise" related to the topic. He is so creative and funny - it's always great. (He's done spy calisthenics, superhero calisthenics, etc...) He put on a goofy English accent and led the girls in twirling and bowing exercises. It was roll-on-the-floor funny for the grownups. The kids ate. it. up.

The video stops when it does because I literally fell off the couch laughing.

Then we decorated butterfly wings (which I bought here). I decided to make it very easy for cleanup, so I put out only stickers. Michael helped by announcing all the different kinds of stickers and doling them out, but the kids were totally engrossed in this project. We probably could have done it for hours.

We played Hot Potato with a "fancy object"...thanks, Solly.

There was the ubiquitous "pin the tail" game which we have at all of our parties.

Sam took a turn

We did a "race" that involved feather boas and sunglasses....(and everyone won!)

Even David had a good time!

Parfaits are much fancier than cake so this is what we did:

And finally, there was a story...

Happy birthday, Yael!