Partyin' Down

Adi's "Big 8" b-day has now come and gone.

8 is a special age for us LDS people. It's when the kiddos are considered to be accountable, thus they get to be baptized, meaning they are officially members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Cool, right?

Anyway, this is also the birthday that kids typically receive their first set of scriptures. Now, OP and I had just a few reservations about this... because Adi isn't exactly famous for her ability to take care of her things (and them quads ain't cheap). But, we gave in and just hoped that she'll magically take care of them.



And I forgot to have our last name printed on them. Whoops.

We also gave her a pretty-little flower CTR ring, a scripture case and a baptism necklace.

P.G. and Piper each gave her a Klutz book and Adi was sweet enough to let her little bro help her open them...



She also received a few calls from family. Here she is talking to her Aunt Whit.



For her b-day outfit, Ads chose to wear the Billy the Exterminator shirt that Whit and Chris gave her.



She loved it just a little.

Now, onto the party.

Originally, she wasn't going to get a party. Since we're going to have a reception-luncheon-thingy after her baptism, I figured that would count as one.

And then I realized that OP had to work on her birthday and she wouldn't even get to see her Daddy. How boring is that?

So I decided to giver her a small, teeny-tiny surprise party with a few of the friends that she hangs with all the time in the neighborhood.

I thought that we'd just have a movie night- that way the girls would mostly be watching TV and I could still take care of lil' Wyatt (yep, it was me versus 9 kiddos. Awesome.).

Here's her birthday banner that I made... and I am now wishing I had done the pendants a little larger.



We had a concession bar (just to make it feel more theater-y).



There were nachos for dinner (nutritious, right?) and, of course, popcorn buckets, mini water bottles and pops, licorice and a big ole jar of candy.





Oh, and here is what a few yards of red fabric, a roll of Scotch tape and 20 minutes will give ya:



The movie screen. Genius, I know.

Adi's friend took Ad to her house until the party started. And they got to our house exactly on time... before half the guests got there. But we still jumped out and yelled, "Surprise" and popped some party poppers in her face.



OK, that isn't the real picture of when Adi walked in, but Pipes had jumped in front of the camera. Don't judge me.

The girlies all got these mini paper popcorn buckets filled with tickets. The tickets were to "purchase" the goodies from the concession stand. Which they loved doing.



And then they sat down and watched A Barbie Fashion Fairytale.




But mostly they ran over to the concessions and filled up on candy and pop.

And they spilled a lot of pop and popcorn.

And generally ran amuck.

Then it was time for the birthday cake (which I honestly don't understand how any of them ate it after all the mini-Twixs and Laffy Taffy they had already swallowed).



They were supposed to look like small popcorn buckets, but they just looked fluffy.

After they finished, I tried to coerce them into finishing the movie, but they ended up turning on some music and dancing around for a hour, working off their sugar rush.

All in all, I am calling it a successful party. And I am once again vowing to never throw one again.

You know, until next month when Porter turns 4...