The Merrill Six: A Spa Party

On the morning of Adi's birthday, I let her dig into her present from OP and I early (still feel kinda bad that Orrin didn't get to see her open it, but I wanted her to be able to use it at her party).

Yup. She got a video camera.

With a carrying case, tripod and DVDs so she can make authentic movies.

I blame my sister, Whitney.

Anywho, I may or may not be frequently on Pinterest. It is usually the window that is left up on our desktop when someone sits down on the computer. Adi likes to scroll through all of the tantalizing images that are posted on there... and that is how Adi ended up planning her party.

She saw this pin and said that she wanted a spa party. I was hesitant, seeing as how I've never even gotten a pedicure, much less gone to a spa. But she was adamant, so we did a lot of Pinterest hunting for ideas. Adi found the whoopie pies that she wanted instead of a cake, the homemade lipgloss she wanted to make, and facials. Oh, the facials.

For the invites I used the templates from here and just photoshopped my own info in and then printed a chevron pattern for the other side.

I learned something new from this party: if you hang 45 balloons in front of a window with sunshine coming in, you'll get a pleasant pink lighting in your house. Keep that in mind when you see the rose tint in all of the pics.

I used A LOT of ideas from the One Charming Party Spaaah Party.

There were the much-talked-about strawberry milk whoopie pies (these things were way more difficult to make than I had at first thought),

banana-strawberry smoothies,

spa water,

sandwiches on a stick,

and veggie straws.

We found these little beauty tins in the after-Christmas clearance racks at Walmart for $1.25 each. Score!

We did our best to set the room up like a spa (yeah, I have no idea what that would look like).

See all of those flip flops? I got them on 75% off clearance at Target and just glued a terry-cloth bow on them. Although, hot glue does not work on flip flops. I recommend taking the time to buy E6000 if you want the bows to last longer than 5 minutes.

So much nail polish.

Now, I have to say a very grateful THANK YOU to my lil' sis Whitney and my sister-in-law Stephanie for coming over and helping me host this party. I never would have been able to do pedicures and facial masks on all eight girls if you guys hadn't been there.

When the girlies got there, we filled up little cheapy bowls from the dollar store with warm water and a squirt of appley bath bubbles. The girlies stuck their piggies in there to soak (and hopefully clean them too).

We made the girls remove their own polish on their toes. We weren't getting paid to do that.

Then we painted their piggies. Good job, Steph!

When their toesies were dry, the girlies got to fill up their own little jars with personalized homemade lip gloss.

Made with Vaseline and Kool Aide. Really, really messy.

Onto the facial masks. We did an edible-chocolate mask that also ended up being waay messy. Who'da thunk?

And yes, we were professional enough to put cucumber slices over their eyes. Not that the girls kept them there. I had to convince them to leave them on long enough for pictures. It didn't work with everyone.

Oh, and notice those awesome headbands in everyone's hair? Yeah, I made them. Best mom ever, right?

It took about twenty minutes to scrub that stuff off of everyone's faces. Thank goodness I got the super-cheap Walmart washrags that I used to wipe the goopy chocolate off and then I trashed them. Wasteful? Yes. But I'm having a hard time feeling bad about it!

Adi did the blowing-out-the-candle thing birthday girls usually do,

then opened presents (did not get a good picture of that). She scored pretty big with cash and gift cards this year. I guess everyone is as confused as I am over what to buy a nine-year-old girl.

The girlies then spent the rest of the party dancing to whatever pop music they could find on the girls' iTouches.

Thanks ladies!