Rylynn's Garden Party!

We had Rylynn's friend birthday party on Saturday March 6th.

For her 5th birthday, Rylynn wanted to have a Garden Party!!  She loves spring and flowers and buggies, and butterflies, and rainbows, so we thought it would be appropriate.  In fact Rylynn draws us a picture (daily) of grass, flowers, a smiley sun, a rainbow and the cutest butterfly you've ever seen, so pretty much the party was inspired by her drawings.  Luckily we had AMAZING weather for her Garden Party so we got to play all our games outside.  I was happy it turned out to be so nice since Rylynn insisted that I write on the invitations that her friends needed to wear a spring or flower dress or shirt and shorts:)

We started out the party by painting little flower pots while the guests filed in.  This picture shows my first attempt at tissue paper flowers.  I really liked making them and by the end, got pretty good at them.  The balloon bouquets were a gift from a friend of mine in our last ward.  They were so awesome!!

After the kids were done painting their little pots we let them dry before planting some flower seeds in the pots.  I got this idea from my friend Ali in OH.  She did this at Emma's birthday party last year and Rylynn loved it!  Her friends all got really excited about it too.  

After the kids were done painting their pots they got to go and dance around and play with balloons while everyone finished painting.  I love how balloons can keep kids entertained for so long.  Seriously one bag is like a dollar and you would think you were giving these kids gold to play with.

When every one was finished we got to go outside for the outdoor games.  The favorite game was the "sprinting thistles" game.  I basically made this up from the Tinkerbell movie.  The kids were all little "seedlings" and had to stand against the fence on one end of the yard.  Then Garrett and Carter were the "Sprinting Thistles" and would try to catch the seedlings as they ran to the other side of the yard to get to the garden where I would plant them and they would be safe.  The kids LOVED this game and we played it over and over until there was only one seedling left.  Rylynn was the second to last seedling standing, so she kind of had a hard time when she lost.  She has the Monson gene of not liking to lose:(

Next came the pin the petal on the flower game.  The kids did great this year and actually kept the blind fold on...well at least most of them.

Here's the party gang.  Notice Carter and Seth(our neighbor friend) are the only boys!

Next came the flower pinata.  Soooo much less nerve racking outside!

Gathering the loot!

Rylynn got some great presents from her friends.  This one was a card making set with stamps and glitter and all sorts of art stuff.  It was from Izabella.  She loves it!

This was probably her favorite gift.  A sparkly, pink diary of her very own!!!  My little Munch LOVES notebooks and journals and diaries.  Really any little book she can draw in and write "very important lists" (as she calls them).  In fact she was just asking me the other day if she could please write in my journal.  I told her NO, but maybe we could get her one of her own.  So when she opened this present she was thrilled.  Thanks Ava!

Here is the cake which is basically a blown up picture of one of her little drawings.  It was so perfect.  She loved it!

Blowing out the big #5 candle!  Rylynn was very clear that she wanted vanilla cake and vanilla ice cream for her party!  Hmmm maybe she isn't exactly like me:)