Birthday girl part 2

Lucky Kendra gets to celebrate her birthday twice each year--once in Michigan with our family there, and once here in Texas with her friends.  Usually we do a pretty decent sized swim party, but this year we pared down the list to four girls who we invited over for a swim and sleepover extravaganza!   It was hard to whittle the list, but we decided to just do school friends this year because they all knew each other and would be able to get along well.  One friend was at church camp, so we ended up with four girls total, including Kendra.  Kendra chose a flip-flop cake for this party.

I was pretty pleased with the result considering the conditions I was working in.  It has been so blasted hot in Texas (over 100 degrees each day) and the air conditioning is working itself to death trying to maintain the 78 degree temp I've got set.  The frosting kept trying to melt and I had to put it in the freezer several times in the process!

To go with the cake we got each of the girls a pair of flip flops in their favorite color, and coordinating ribbon to decorate them with.

They also got a pack of Silly Bandz and three lip glosses as part of their take-away gift.

Here's Kendra in her bathing suit and coverup, tuning up the music in anticipation of the arrival of her friends.

They arrrived and we headed to the pool! They played for about and hour and a half. Normally I enjoy just sitting poolside to watch, but I had to get in several times to beat the heat!

What cuties!

Kendra also asked if we could do some water balloons, and I agreed with the condition that we play in the open soccer field next to the pool instead of our backyard (didn't want any surprises left by Grady to ruin the fun!). 

We headed back to the house where I supervised a revolving door shower for the girls while making homemade pizza for dinner.  Cheese and bacon.  YUM!

As they came from the shower, all the girls would start brushing their hair.   It took only moments for those hair brushes to become microphones and they were belting out some Carrie Underwood!

After dinner, cake and ice cream, the girls decided they wanted to put on a show.  They rehearsed for at least an hour in my bedroom (something about needing the bathroom???).  Then they performed it for me.

The cast!

While they were rehearsing, I was busy hot-gluing the ribbon to the flip flops.  Originally we intended it to be a craft project for the girls to do, but I didn't want them to burn themselves like I did (twice!).

After the show, we got all set up for movie time, including popcorn, of course!  I think this was Grady's favorite part of the night!

While the girls ate and watched the movie (we started with Percy Jackson but it was a bit scary so we changed to The Parent Trap), I painted their finger and toe nails.  Quite the undertaking, especially because they all wanted fancy stuff like polka dots and colored tips.  The toes looked super cute in their new flip flops, though!

I was EXHAUSTED!  So I insisted that we hit the lights at about 11:45 p.m.  I knew I had to get them up at around 8:00 the next day because one of them needed to be picked up early.  And sure enough, not a creature was stirring when I got up the next day to wake them...

After M left at 9, I had the other two girls until 10:30 and they wanted me to do their hair.  We did side ponys for all, complete with flowers.  How sweet!

What a great bunch of girlies my daughter has chosen as friends.  I am grateful for their sweet spirits and would be glad to have them in my home again anytime!  Kendra had a really fun time with her besties!!!