1/1 Maile's 5th Birthday New Year Party

Since Maile's birthday is on New Year's Eve, we typically have a birthday party for her on New Year's Day when everyone has the day off. I figured this year was probably the last year we could have a party at home. So, I decided to make it a New Year's theme with a countdown at noon and a balloon drop. To go with the balloon theme, we hired a balloon artist. I actually found her on Yelp, and she had an amazing portfolio. I did look into another balloon artist but decided on the Balloon Lady (http://www.heyballoonlady.com/).

Jim and Joyce were our first guests. They came early for a short visit while Payton was sick at home with the nanny. Too bad they couldn't stay longer. People started trickling in after 11, so the Balloon Lady had a pretty small audience for a while, which meant more balloons for each kids. She can make anything she's seen before and was even pretty good at improvising a Batmobile for Carter Sun.

Originally, we had planned to have the countdown at noon. But since some people were running late, we decided to eat and then have the balloon drop. We had the balloon drop at 1p. We just gathered the kids under the drop and started counting down. The kids loved it. They then gathered all the balloons into the conversation pit (better than a McDonald's ball pit).

We then brought Maile's cupcakes out and sang happy birthday. We told the kids if they wanted a cupcake, they had to follow us back to the kitchen. I heard a couple of yays and kids running after us, but was surprised to see only Maile, Hannah, and Beck. Other kids eventually followed, but we still had a bunch of cupcakes left as Hansel had predicted.


For more photos and details about the party, check out Mia's blog at http://www.adventures-of-mia.blogspot.com/