Darcy's 5th Birthday (Friend Party)

Darcy is 5! For some reason that number just feels unbelievable to me. Probably because starting kindergarten goes along with it. A few hours into the day she looked at me and said, "I kind of still feel the same as I did when I was 4." I had to laugh.

For her 5th birthday she got to have her first friend party. I read somewhere that a kid could handle to have the same number of friends for a party as the number of years they are turning. So we had five sweet and super fun little girls over to celebrate with us and Darcy was in heaven! I was kind of in heaven watching them play together too.

We decided on a fairly low key painting theme and I thought it was a great success. I took about a thousand pictures and it was really hard to decide which ones to use for this post.

Ashley showed me this idea for our invitations on Pinterest. I was excited about how they turned out.

 

 I love this happy five year old face. This was right before her friends showed up for the party. She was so excited and kept looking out the window to see if anyone was here yet.

 

Decorating cupcakes was first on the agenda.

 





About to blow out the candles. (That purple candle in the middle has a number five on the other side. A detail that was really exciting and important to her.)

 



 Next they painted bird houses. I just grabbed a bunch of my old t-shirts and turned them inside out to protect their clothes.

 

 Six adorable girls with their finished bird houses.

 

 Then I just sent them outside to play for a while and they were having a blast out there. They were being so good to take turns with the all-important goggles.

 

 There was lots of running from the trampoline to the pool to the sprinkler and back.

 



 Ashley came to party and to be my helper and I don't know how I could have managed it all without her! She was mostly in charge of taking care of the boys while I took care of the girls and she did an awesome job.

 

 This was one of those activities that I had dreamed would be really fun, but as the time got closer I wondered if it would end up being a flop. These girls ended up being so into it and they were so creative! I was relieved and I had so much fun watching their fun. The paint was washable and they all just cleaned up in the pool and sprinkler when they were done. It worked perfectly!

 

 Their finished product

 

  This was right after Darcy finished opening her presents. These girls were so sweet to Darcy, and happy to participate and play together. I finished this party wishing I could have them all over on a regular basis. I am so grateful that Darcy is surrounded by such great little friends here and that they helped make her day so awesome.