Willa turns 6

Willa turned six in October. Hard to believe it! She wanted a Lego/Princess party and was adamant about invitations and the whole shebang. It was my first time really doing this type of thing, so I was a little nervous. I'm not good at being creative or any kind of editing. I found a stock Lego photo online, cropped it a little, and uploaded it to Costco's greeting card site. Badabing, badaboom. The whole process probably took me an hour longer than the five minutes that was probably necessary.

I wasn't sure who to invite. School had just started (and she was ADAMANT about doing the party on her actual birthday, which is the middle of October) so she didn't really have a lot of school friends she knew well enough to invite. Plus, I was nervous about needing to invite the whole class. I didn't just want to do friends from the old neighborhood because we don't see them hardly at all anymore and sadly, it's mainly the memory of friendships with some of these girls. In the end I emailed two or three parents privately from the kindergarten class (only one could come), I invited her two best friends from preschool last year, our entire preschool co-op from the year previous, the girls in her new Primary class, and of course Bridgett. So many people couldn't come, we ended up having the perfect amount of girls. (Though, I'm just going to say shame on people who don't respond to RSVP's! Even if you can't come, you should still respond with regrets. This party made me determined to do better at that myself.)

Zappos just happened to be having a sample sale the day before, so Rebecca showed up at our house with a lot of brand new adorable dresses for the girls. This party dress was to die for, I was so happy she wanted to dress up in it for the party. It was perfect.

Pin the hair on the Lego.

I wanted to keep things really simple because I just knew if I tried to do too much I'd be frustrated and frazzled. The girls would mainly want to play, anyway. I had Ryan draw a Lego figure and then we played "Pin the hair on the Lego." The girls LOVED it. I had a table set up with crayons and some Lego Friends coloring pages, and another area set up with some Legos to play with. I thought about having a little contest where we could see who could build the tallest tower in 60 seconds, but it didn't fit into my plan to simplify. It was the perfect amount of structure/activities to keep the party on schedule as well as feed all the girls dinner and have time for cake and presents.

Present opening was so adorable. My friend took a video and posted it to Facebook, but I can't figure out how to download it to my computer so I can post it here. Basically, Willa happy-screamed her head off and jumped up and down for each present. I need to do better and my own reactions to gifts. It's fun to see someone get SO excited about a gift. Plus, her friends were sweet, thoughtful, and generous with their gifts.

 For the cake, I can't quite remember what I did. I think I made a cake in a 9x11 pan, cut it in half and frosted it double layered. Then I baked cupcakes. I took four cupcakes, cut off the tops, and then stuck the bottoms into the top of the big cake to make the cake look like a Lego block. It looked better in my mind (and on the internet), but she was pleased with it. I decorated it with some of the candy Legos and Willa added her princess Lego figures to finish it off. Let the record show that when I first baked the cake, I reserved enough batter to make four cupcakes. Then as I was putting the girls to bed the evening before the party, Ryan came home from work and one or two of my special four cupcakes had disappeared by the time I came back downstairs. I had time to whip up another batch of cupcakes the next day and it was nice to have the variation. Truth be told, the first four were a little burnt anyway.

We are missing one or two in this photo, but it was a great little group of girls. Aaliyah, Paige, Willa, Maya, June, Bridgett, Hailey, Aria

 Aaliyah was the only little friend from kindergarten who could come. This was such a sweet picture of the two of them. It's my understanding that they get very silly together at school.

The party was listed to go from 5-7 pm. I fed them chicken nuggets, fruit, veggies, and rolls on Lego paper plates. Probably the highlight of the party was that we finished everything up at a leisurely, but constant pace and the last little girls were leaving around 6:50 pm. It's pretty exciting to set a schedule and stick to it! Willa had a great time and I still feel grateful to friends (and parents who brought their girls and helped pick out gifts). We are very well-loved. 

At six years old, Willa loves Fancy Nancy books, lots of reading, LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS, and princesses. She received several Lego sets this birthday and basically spent two or three days straight putting them together. She is super focused when she's on a project that she enjoys. She can do the Legos almost entirely by herself, but occasionally will need help understanding an instruction or if she's accidentally built something one square off. She's better at being a sister to June and they have lots of fun imaginary play together. She does not like to get her hair brushed or get ready for school. She can't wait for the weekend but also admitted to me the other day that she's "beginning to like kindergarten."