Monday, June 23, 2008

Samantha's 10th Birthday Party

I draw something on the driveway every year for Samantha's party. This year the theme Samantha chose was Webkinz. So, up at the top there is a Webkinz frog, a cat and an elephant. I was worried about the elephant because he could have gone so very wrong but he came out well. In the front are a horse and monkey but I'm sure you knew that by my excellent drawing skills.

Lee arrived before Samantha's friends and I tried to get a picture of them together but this is as close as I could get Samantha to stand next to him.

So, the girls arrived: Tara and Olivia. And each brought one Webkinz friend to the party. (We limited it to 1 because all the girls have over 30...) Samantha brought Hannah, the hippo. Tara brought Emily, the elephant and Olivia brought Hillary, the white Westie dog. Around the back yard we had the different areas from Webkinz set up. Here the girls are playing doctor at Dr. Quack's Clinic.

At the arcade we had a pinata. My mom had given it to Samantha the last time we visited and we decided to use it as it was intended. We have a soft spot for pinatas shaped like actual animals and cannot whack them with a stick... but this one was a Shrek pinata that wasn't shaped like anything, it just had a picture on the front that didn't get torn up after being beaten with a stick.

John and Lee joined in on the pinata fun. Note that John is holding the stick, that's because when John whacked it he hit it so hard that the pole snapped off the play house and broke. John really had fun with the fact that Lee was blind folded and he tormented him.

Behold, the Wheel of Wow! John made the Wheel of Wow and it turned out great. the girls were thrilled that they could spin it multiple times since you are only allowed 1 spin a day on Webkinz.

The biggest part of the party was spent making rooms for the Webkinz they brought. This is Samantha's room for Hannah.

And Tara's room for Emily. Note the crocheted poncho. I made those as prizes from the games. And note the rock in the little box. That was from the Home Before Dark game. We glued eyes and tails on about 16 rocks and hid them all over the yard. The girls (including John and Lee) had 30 minutes to get them found and home before dark. John and Lee had to help because I tend to hide things really well. It's all because of ladybugs... about 4 years ago Samantha had a lady bug themed birthday party and we did a scavenger hunt. They were to follow the clues and find the mommy lady bug to reunite her with her baby. Well, one of the little girls says: Oh, we don't have to follow the clues, it's right there! So, now I hide things in extra hard places.

And here is Olivia's house for Hillary.

The girls are waiting for cake!

We did pizza and an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen which is Samantha's favorite...

Then it was time for presents... Tara gave Samantha a doctor's kit. It was the hit of the presents! She had spent so much time gathering things and putting it together.

Olivia gave Samantha a Webkinz pink Google in a carrying case. Samantha named the Google Polly...

Grandma gave Samantha some more Littlest Pet Shops...

Lee gave Samantha a Best Buy gift card so that she could pick out her own Nintendo DS game. (She got Nintendogs...) And he said he didn't know that she was too old for Dora but to our surprise the girls loved the card. It is one of those musical ones that plays happy birthday in English and Spanish. We finally had to tell them to lay off the card...

John and I gave Samantha a really big card since she was turning a really big 10!

We gave Samantha a Nintendo DS and we heard through the grapevine that she knew we were giving it to her so we tried to fake her out and filled the box with pancake mix.

They kept digging because they thought there had to be something in the box other than pancake mix...

The pancakes were a big hit though... first Olivia wanted to take some home but then she decided not to and Tara jumped on them and said she'd take them if Olivia didn't want them... Who knew, Dora the Explorer and pancake mix...

They found the DS!

As soon as they were done with the presents the girls gathered up the doctor's stuff and went in to the playroom with it.
It was a great 10th birthday party!

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