So last Summer I took Stella to a Movies by Moonlight event at Taylor Brawner Park. The movie was The Good Dinosaur. She loved it. Donald bought it for her birthday. But eventually I tired of watching and hearing The Good Dinosaur over and over. Then I remembered a childhood favorite of ours-The Land Before Time. She loved it. And those two movies started a love of dinosaurs for Stella.
I saw this invite on Pinterest or Etsy and loved it's simplicity. I asked around on Facebook for someone to make something similar and Britany helped me out with an exact replica. Unfortunately, they couldn't make it to the party, but I was so grateful for this.
We set up this seating area under the carport in case of rain or too much sun, but literally no one sat here. Everyone mingled in the backyard the entire time.
Instead of buying decorations I just made a few out of cardboard boxes. I wanted to be somewhat "green" and we also didn't want to do a lot of set-up. I bought some dinosaur stamps and had a few birthday stamps. Stella helped me stamp them and she enjoyed helping with the decor.
Of course I had to put out these metal signs my mom gave me
when Stella was born.
This girl loved helping me set up things for her party.
That huge sheet of plastic back there is actually 3 pieces put together to make Metro Atlanta's largest slip 'n' slide.
And the birthday banner I made for Stella for her first birthday.
Silly faces before the party
Simple party favors-Dinosaur stickers and grow-in-water dinos.
See the two dinosaur things in the background? Those are bubble guns I bought off of Zulily. They were quite the hit. When I bought them I just thought they dispensed bubbles. Turns out they light up and roar. Really loudly too. We went through a lot of bubbles with these and they caused a few fights.
Stella wanted dirt cake for her party so the birthday girl got what she asked for.
I also made simple vanilla mini cupcakes for those who may have wanted just a little bite or something without chocolate.
She told me she wanted her own star cake to put the candles in but didn't even end up eating this.
I stamped the craft paper with the dino stamps and
set up some dinosaur books for more decor.
We did it pretty simple this year-fresh fruit and veggies, homemade ranch, crackers and cheese, plus a bunch of Papa John's pizza. We usually stick with Siracusa's for pizza, but I personally love some Papa Johns. Also, we had one of those local area coupon cards with 30% off an online order
which made our decision easy.
Waiting on guests to come through the gate....
This kid!
I swear she loves him!
She just always gets overwhelmed at the guests at first.
Every.single.year.
Eric sneaking into the playhouse and Ellery splashing in the pool.
This was the best family photo we could get. Her shirt is a pink stegosaurus and reads "Stellasaurus." Mine is a T-Rex and reads "Mama Saurus."
My cousin Jennie made these for us, plus the ones my parents are wearing.
Love The Green Family. And See....told you she likes him!
This was the best we could get out of her for a photo with LolliPop.
Harper and Londynn
This slip 'n' slide/water area was such a huge hit!
Classy pose Stella!
Izzy & Mila thought this was pretty funny.
Izzy and Ethan
Let's just say the hula hoop went in the trash after the party.
What I imagine Harper saying: "Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls. It is my pleasure to show you this rare creature and her spectacular tricks....Behold!"
Yay! Happy birthday/cake time!
But then reality sets in.....which means everyone crowds around her which makes her uncomfortable and a kid from the crowd ends up blowing out her candle which upsets her (understandably, of course) so we end up re-lighting the candles 4-5 times so she can blow it out the 2nd time and other kids can partake in the candle blowing out festivities the other times.
Follow along below.
This year's random kid to blow out Stella's candles (it's always a different one) was our neighbor, Calvin!!!
Yep, see that face?
She's pissed and Charlotte is upset for her. Everyone's listening to me tell them, "Ok guys, this is Stella's party, so let her blow the candles out this time and I will re-light them as many times as needed, but just give this to her!"
Whew! It worked. They listened. Stella blew out her candles.
Mission accomplished.
And moving on to the dirt cake candles....
Alright so now she's pissed because people are poking their fingers in her cake to swipe the dinosaurs off of it. Her dinosaurs. Y'all? These are valid points, but it's still comical to me. And I can laugh. I'm her mom.
I deal with this all the time.
Very quickly I scooped her out some dirt cake and she inhaled it. And was in a better mood. It may not look like it from these next pictures but she was shortly thereafter. Hey, it's her party and she can cry if she wants to...
I tell ya, she can burn through holes with that look!
And now we move on to the part of the party where they all decided the hula hoop would be the angry circle. I'm not making this up.
So just to be clear, no one is actually mad here (anymore),
they are just pretending to be.
Clearly a lot of craziness was going on.
Charlotte apparently still had those angry feelings from earlier when Calvin blew out Stella's candles so she decided to take them over to the angry circle with the birthday girl. That's what friends are for!
But Maddy was all smiles!
Stella was thrilled she got to hold Maddy's little sister, Baby Sophie.
This was such a fun party. Some of Stella's friends from school were there: Annika & Mila with their older siblings, Charlotte and Maddy. Unfortunately, Stella's boyfriend, Andrew wasn't present. She did make it through the party without him though so all is well. The Paulk's, The Green's, Kim and Grayson, Harper, Londynn, Ava & Ellery made it. Our neighbor's Alana and Eric, plus the "C" Monsters-Cameron, Cadence and Calvin were there too.
We never put an end time on our invites, because we love for everyone to hang out as long as they want. And we aren't rushing off anywhere, of course. So a few families were left and we heard a few rumbles up above and the wind picked up. We started tidying up some and bringing in anything that didn't need to get wet. The Paulk family ended up hanging with us until sometime around 10. We weathered the storm all huddled together on the back porch sitting on camping chairs and coolers talking way too loud over the fan and sound of rain on the tin roof. When the storm passed the kids went outside with flashlights and lanterns on a hunt of some kind. At some point they went in Stella's room and ate a bunch of gum. Not sure where they found it, but I discovered wads of it in the bottom of her trashcan. Fun times. Really. Our bright star is so loved.
Donald really pushed for a party somewhere other than our home this year. He didn't want a lot of work. Stella wouldn't have it. She told us, "No. I don't want a party anywhere else. I want it at home. All of my other parties have been at home. This one should be at home too." I sort of tried to convince her to have it somewhere else, but deep down, I wanted it at home too. I love our backyard. I love that she wanted it there. Her simple requests this year were the sprinkler and the slip 'n' slides. Done. I just wanted a bunch of happy people in our yard celebrating our girl. Done.
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