Madalyn’s Tangled Party- 7 years old!!

(from the movie)  Honey made these for me and can I just say I could NOT have pulled this party off in the least without her tremendous help the days before!!!  THANK YOU, Mom!

Making their slumber party tent

 

Friends since babyhood.

Painting Rapunzel

Only for some unknown reason Madalyn decided to rebel and paint Ariel.  Okay…

But it was a nice Ariel.

 

In the end I think she regretted it and had to use a piece of paper to paint Rapunzel.  I thought Aubrey’s Rapunzel turned out cute with the hair and dress details, too.

Evan painted Tommy from Rugrats… only got impatient about letting the layers dry and had a puddled mess for the mouth.  Jack painted a magnificent Piranha plant from Mario… I had no idea he’d come so far with his fine motor skills.  I think his is my favorite of the night!

  

We also made lanterns like in the movie.  I got these clear “paint cans” (they were called) at Joann’s and we put push-lights from Target in the bottom and yellow tissue paper… I wasn’t sure it would work but they turned out great- the girls loved them.  Madalyn said that was her favorite thing.

 

Dinner served by the pool while they swam… (sign from the movie, and junk food upon Madalyn’s request- easy enough for me!)

 

We had an incident where a strange girl rang the door bell and tried to sneak into the party.  All the girls shouted “Camille is here!”  Thinking it was the guest we were waiting on who had to come late.  Unfortunately, it was this pitiful girl who was a BIG laughing hit. 

 

Seven trick candles.

Took all four of them to get ‘em out.

 

Hand-made birthday cards by Aubrey and Shannon Bates.

Watching “Tangled.”

  

They then, by their own planning, rehearsed and put on their own production of the movie, directed by Camille.  We heard her shouting ACTION!  And CUT!  And feeding them lines.  Shaun recorded it.  Hilarious.

 

“Midnight snack.”  Which was actually more like 10:30

Followed by more sugar in the morning… donuts made by Evan.  And then 4 hours of swimming before calling it a wrap.  It was a good birthday for the birthday princess who is spunky and compassionate and reminds me of Disney’s Rapunzel.  Happy Birthday, my flower!  xo

Super Mario Swim Party

 

Very proud to be 8.

 

If you look closely in the first of the two above, you will see Madalyn being a “clapper” plant coming out of the pipe ( which is what the kids call the Venus Flytrap-ish plants on the game.)  They were delighted with these construction paper cut-outs.  I had no idea how happy they would make them- probably the cheapest thing I did.

  

 

Fighting off a turtle…. being a turtle…

Taunting a turtle.

   

Cupcakes and party favors

 

Inside the question mark boxes were Yoshi egg cookies (Madalyn was quick to point out that the dots were way too small) and star cookies.

 

And cotton candy.

Evan had daddy burn a copy of the computer game he designed all by himself for each family to take home.

 

He even dictated instructions for me to type for the inside of the game case.  I think this was the most exciting part of the party for him- giving these away after all of endless hours of working on them.

These were supposed to be mushroom cupcakes but Madalyn was also quick to point out that the dots should be flat, with the red, not raised like marshmallows.  I’m so glad I have her around to insult instruct me.

I was also told (Evan) that there must be a few extra life (green) mushrooms and had to throw some in at the last minute.

This is where there were eventually grilled hotdogs and fruit salad and pasta salad.  Evan instructed me on precisely where to tape each construction paper decoration- the Goopa above was to be exactly on the left of the wall, not center, not on the right.  I’ve never had such opinionated party help in my life! 

But the guests came and swam and all piled on the trampoline and then back to the pool again… and had a general blast with no help from the adults at all. 

 

Here are the little girls trying to pull the big girl in… they desperately wanted Ally IN, but she found it a tad cold.

Ally is a very patient, sweet girl.  So much so that she still gave Madalyn a box of her favorite old reading books even after this incident.

   

This is Sam leaning in to give Evan a kiss.

Reciprocation. 

Evan taking time out from the party to tell daddy something.

 

“Blow, don’t spit!”  Shaun and I chant in unison.

 

And he did just that.  Because he’s 8 now.

 

The gift from the Bates family was a huge hit because they wrapped box inside of box inside of box to prank him…

They’re all at an age where they think pranks are the coolest, so everyone got a good laugh every time yet another box was revealed instead of the gift.

 

In the smallest box was money.  (All he asked for was enough money to buy Super Mario Galaxy 2, so there were lots of money gifts for him to combine and do that.)

Like I said, everyone got a kick out of it.

Honey and Poppy gave him the game “Apples to Apples” and a pair of Walkie Talkies, which was his other request. 

Luke and Emory gave him a very detailed, animated card and an exploding science experiment to do later… what 8-year-old boy doesn’t love an explosive gift?

Ahh, but the best part.  Evan and his boys discussing the game he created and that they’re taking home.

 

Party favors.  And that was about it.

 

Followed by Sam doing a mighty nice job of putting the leftover cokes away.  (After first taking them out and dancing in the ice water.)

  

And daddy playing with Walkie Talkies with Evan.

 

And Jack breaking his sucker.

And Madalyn sharing her sucker.

Which went on for some time. 

The end.