une autre mère: adeline's dolphin party

Adeline turned the ripe ol' age of 7 on September 3rd. I know - SE-VEN! I can't believe my firstborn has already reached an age that requires two syllables!

As you can see, she was pretty excited about it:

But she was probably mostly excited about her "little" party. As you may recall, she had her first big "friend party" last year, and we had told her that this year it would be much smaller. Like just a few friends hanging out. No big deal. Really.

Well... Addie is too much like her mother when it comes to party planning. By the time her Wizard of Oz party was barely over last year, she was already in the works of planning her Dolphin Swim Party for this year (she's a HUGE fan of the movie Dolphin Tale - like maybe even obsessed). I kept reminding her that it was going to be teensy weensy. That there really was NO need for planning because it was really more like just having a few friends over to go swimming. But all throughout the year she was making lists of different dolphin game ideas, songs to play, snacks to have, decorations to make, etc, etc, etc. I didn't want to crush her dreams and thwart her party planning capabilities. But I also knew Millie was having her big party just a week before and I really didn't want to have a mental breakdown. So we came to a compromise of sorts. She could have 3 friends over (I had originally said 2, but then realized that would make an odd number and that's never good in such a small group of young girls) and I would make a cake and have a few snacks, but she would have to do the decorating, games and activities. She was all about that. So here's what it ended up looking like:

By her request - a dolphin cookie cake. Complete with 2 kissing dolphins and a "Lego Addie" lounging on the beach with an ice cream shake under an umbrella.

The lovely decorations. Okay, so I did make the banner, but all the dolphin masterpieces are completely her own.

We decided whales would make a nice snack for a dolphin party.

Another request - dolphin-shaped cookies. Fortunately she already had a "toy" dolphin cookie cutter. It wasn't the best, but it worked.

You'll notice the lovely dolphin mosaics on the tables. Those were craft kits sent by Nana B. before her birthday so she could make them to use as decorations.

The napkins and cups we already had, but I did splurge a tad and bought the plates when I ordered stuff for Millie's party from Oriental Trading. But they were still only $3 for 8, so I guess it wasn't that much of a splurge.

The one other thing I bought was the party favors. The whale boxes were in the Dollar Spot at Target, the stuffed dolphins were from the Dollar Tree and the goldfish and M&Ms we already had. So, a total of $6 on party favors.

And here are the guests!

Little sis Millie (she was a freebie), cousin Clara, a friend from her 1st grade class and one from her 2nd grade class. A pretty good mix. And they all got along really well too, considering nobody really knew each other.

This is a better picture of how they really acted:

They all got "inked up" in our dolphin tattoo parlor....

And played "Pin the Tail on Winter" (If you've seen the movie, this will make more sense to you)...

Had some yummy food...

Opened presents...

And SWAM!

So, it was fun. But still more work than I had anticipated after just finishing up Millie's big party. We told Addie that the next time we say, "small party," it'll be just ONE friend over for pizza, a movie and possibly a sleep over. I thought she'd be sad about that, but she seemed almost more excited at that possibility. Wish I would've known that a few weeks ago... ;)

After her friends left, we had dinner and then celebrated her birthday as a family. And no, I wasn't about to make yet another cake, so we just cut some pieces from her party cake.