A Pink Pony Party

Annabelle requested a pink pony party for her fifth birthday. I still can’t think about her being FIVE. HOW did she get so big so fast? Five just seems so grown up…and when she woke up on December 9th, she told me she “felt bigger” and “like a five year old.” 

Her party was the day before her actual birthday, and a Sunday afternoon this time of year just seems to work out best.  

We had been searching for a pony for the party for WEEKS. The craziest thing happened and a friend posted a picture of her daughter on facebook on a pony – so I messaged her to see if we could borrow it. They saved the day and “Cisco” was the highlight of the party!

All the kids loved him. He’s seriously the fattest pony I’ve ever seen – and so stinking cute!!!! The party hat nearly sent me over the edge. How CUTE was he? He wore it proud, too. :)

I used lots of burlap I already had for decoration and made a few “winning ribbons” to use.

We set up our old school table outside for the kids

and had a hitching post put up for Cisco.

We sang Happy Birthday first.

AB wanted cupcakes, but she also requested a cake, too… I didn’t really understand why, but it was her day, so she got a cake. :)She also asked me THE MORNING of her party where her balloons were. I didn’t know she wanted balloons… I guess I should have… I mean what is a party without balloons? This momma was down at the Winn Dixie at 8:00 that morning buying some balloons. :)

After that, the kids had cupcakes and an ice cream bar.

This year, we let AB invite 5 little girls – everyone was able to come except for one. We also invited our immediate family, like always.

After cake and ice cream, we had our “pony events” – I’d planned three events as a part of the “Birthday Triple Crown…”

The first, event was “Pin the Tale on the Pony…”

Next was the “Pony Races” – these stick ponies are well over thirty years old.

Last, it was “Pony Shoes” – I’d spray painted some small horse shoes pink, and not just to keep with the pony theme, it just felt wrong to call them horse shoes. :)

After the games, we took some more pony rides…

& then opened presents…

AB got so many fun things and I think she ended up with every Barbie horse there is! :) She was thrilled to say the least.

The girls all wanted to ride Cisco again. That pony got his workout that afternoon. AB had gotten some pink dress-up chaps from one of her friends, so a few of the the girls wanted to try those out while they rode Cisco. They were too cute…

The girls ran around the yard, in and out of the playroom and took turns riding Cisco for at least another hour before everyone headed home.

We sent her little friends home with a pink cowgirl hat, and a pony bottlecap necklace that had their names on them.

Everyone else got bottlecap magnets personalized with their names.…

It was such a sweet afternoon and so much fun to celebrate our big FIVE year old girl, who’s loved beyond measure.

~amw~

Character Dance

AB’s school had character dress-up day, the week before Halloween, where students could come dressed as their favorite book character.

AB chose to dress up as Fancy Nancy.

We put a crown, bows, butterflies and even curly pipe cleaners in her hair…

The same day, the school held a character dance, as part of their positive behavior reward program.

The kids (who have earned it) get to go by grade-level (Pre-K is mixed in with K) to the cafeteria, and have a dance party for 30 minutes.

Maybree and I got to go to the dance, too. It was so cute and AB had the best time dancing with her little friend, “E.”

These two are inseparable at school, and I am so thankful AB has made such a sweet little friend this year. I’m already praying we get into the same class next year. :)

Nen also popped in to squeeze in a dance…

AB’s favorites were the Cha-Cha Slide & the Chicken Dance. :)

The school’s “Safety Rangers” were doing a photo fundraiser and this was AB’s picture from that…

It was such a fun morning for our big Pre-K girl!

~amw~

Trick or Treat 2013

I feel like Halloween kind of snuck up on us. How is it already November?

AB had been saying for a while that she wanted to dress up as a cowgirl this year. She needed a new pair of boots anyway, so I agreed it was the perfect idea. Anytime we can kill two birds with one stone, I consider it a win.

Her hat, was her Aunt Kelsey’s when she was little – and believe it or not, the “A” belt buckle was mine when I was a kid.

I was going to dress Mamie up as a cow, since AB was a cowgirl, but then we decided on an Indian instead. My BFF, Carrie, pointed out it was a good call, since Mames might have issues one day if I dressed her up as a pig one year and a cow the next. :)

(The REALLY funny thing, is that Carrie & I unknowingly planned the SAME costumes for our kids this year… Allie was an Indian and Whitt was a cowboy! It really didn’t surprise either of us, since things like that happen to us all the time.) :)

For our little Indian, we found a pair of moccasins on our mountain trip when we stopped at the Magnolia Plantation on the side of I-75. Then, my Mom whipped her costume up on Monday night after dance class. It turned out so stinking cute.

Being almost two years old with a mind completely of her own, you never know about Mames. But she surprised us all when she REALLY loved dressing up on Halloween. She walked extra tall and was quite proud of how cute she looked. She even left her headpiece on!

For treat bags, thanks to a last minute recommendation from Carrie, the girls had brown paper gift bags.

My Mom and I had planned to take the girls to Boo-at-the-Zoo at Santa Fe this year on Halloween afternoon. We’ve never been, but I’ve got several friends who take their kids every year. AB was so excited and I was, too- especially after Mamie showed so much interest in Trick-or-Treating. We made it a little after 4:00 (they opened the zoo at 3:00) – and the line was already insane.

We decided waiting two hours to get in just wasn’t going to work for us this year, so we loaded the kids back up and stopped at Publix. I’d also heard they do Trick-or-Treating in the store, and since we had driven all the way to Gainesville and Publix was right there, we gave it a shot. They had a few stations set up and the girls were excited to finally get some candy in their bags! :)

We had dinner with Grammy & Pop…

Then, DW and I  took the girls to Trick-or-Treat a little more…

Uncle Adam & Aunt Nen’s…

Uncle Van & Aunt Amber’s…

The girls with their cousins, Elliot, Taylor & Warren

Warren decided he wanted to go with us, so he and Amber followed us back out to our house and we made a stop at Aunt Kels’ first…

Then we made our last stop at Pappy & Nie-Nie’s…

It was a fun low-key Halloween, which was perfect this year. :)

Calories don’t count from Halloween thru Christmas…RIGHT????  :)

~amw~