Kendra is lucky in that she usually gets TWO birthday shin-digs each year. One is a family party in Michigan and the other with a few friends when we get back. My sister's family has four kids, and throw in grandparents and good ole mom and you have a pretty decent sized par-tay!
This year I saw an idea on Pinterest (
credit), made some adaptations of my own, and Voila! We had a fun party that everyone enjoyed. My sister's kids range from age 9-almost 16, so that's a challenge! My sister graciously offered to let us host at her house!
We did some of the prep for our party at home in Texas...we painted paper plates to look like sliced fruit and bought the paper supplies. After getting Kool-Aid flavor pouches for a steal, I decided to do water bottles instead of soda and customized them for the kids with their names (plus Ninja!). I also bought candy fruit slices for decor and munching, and the paper products HAD to include sparkles (Kendra's favorite color, you know.)
I even got sparkly birthday party hats, which I was sure would be a waste of money. The kids proved me wrong---they loved them!
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| My sister rockin' out the cone |
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| Aaaaaannnd...my brother in law going for the unicorn look. Classic. |
We checked off two more "Michigan food items" from our list for dinner---a Greek salad from this really yummy place and Hungry Howie's pizza!
Next came dessert! Instead of doing a cake or cupcakes, we stuck with the Fruit Ninja theme and went with Fruit Pizzas! I had the idea of doing personal sized ones and letting the kids make their own---they LOVED it. I made yummy sugar cookies and the "sauce" was a frosting recipe floating around online---vanilla pudding and cool whip. HUGE hit.
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| LOVE this pic...what an awesome bunch! |
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| My sister will love that I posted this...here she is, the Frosting Ninja. :-) |
Next, presents of course! Her major gift from me was our Disney trip, and her dad sent her some money to go shopping (a favorite pastime!). She received a pair of Toms shoes from my mom and Troy, money from my dad and step mom, an Amazon gift card from my brother's family, and a curling wand from my sister's family (which she discovered she wanted when we were there and Gracie "wanded" her hair). It was decided a long time ago that Kendra could begin wearing makeup at age 12 since it is the age she joins our young women's program in church, so I got her a makeup bag and some makeup to unwrap, too.
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| A little happy with the makeup! |
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| And the wand... |
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| I don't know what she was opening but I love this laughing face! |
Our final activity to the party was....Fruit Ninja---Water Balloon Style!!! We blew up a ton of water balloons, cut up some Ninja headbands from one of Papa's old t-shirts, and borrowed my nephew Luke's wooden ninja sword! Everyone LOVED this!
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| Ninjas READY! |
Even us adults got in on the action!
THEN, my brother in law Jack got sneaky....
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| I love that he's still wearing his hat! |
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| Go ahead, try it! |
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| Nailed them! |
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| One cold girl...Michigan hose water is FREEZING!!! |
The party was super fun and Kendra loved it!
The next day was Kendra's actual birthday, and we continued tradition with the birthday pancake. Gracie and Tessa slept over after the party, so they got to choose a special shape for their pancakes, too. Then we met my sister's family at Toby Keith's for lunch. Can't ask for a better birthday!
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| Love the sleepy eyes. I wonder how much longer she'll let me post pics like these? |
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| Mickey ears and a heart for the other girls! |
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| We found this orange yumminess at a local stand in Michigan...so refreshing! |
We left Michigan to come back home the day after Kendra's birthday. When we got here, the Young Women's organization at our church had decorated our front door welcoming Kendra to Young Women's (she joined the youth program when turning 12)! She is in a class called the Beehives, so they left her this cute note saying "Welcome to the Hive!" and the girls in her class also wrote sweet notes on the little bees. Sadly, the Hershey bar succumbed to the Texas heat, but nothing a little time in the fridge couldn't solve! Kendra felt really special that they left this for her!
