Lia's 14th Friend Birthday Party

After hosting Logan's friend birthday party last weekend, I had the good fortune of turning around and hosting Lia's this weekend.  Luckily, she only wanted to invite her four closest friends from her elementary school days and so I only had to prepare a party for five girls instead of the masses like when she was younger.  I decided to go with a light pink, rose gold, and gold theme that seemed appropriate for these older girls.  Just like last year, Lia simply wanted to have a pizza dinner, open presents, watch a movie, and have a slumber party.  Luckily, her four friends (Sienna, Mollie, Elle, and Rian) were all available and came over last night at 6 p.m.  The girls that enjoyed a fun evening together eating, talking, laughing, watching a movie, and staying up past midnight. I then treated them to a waffle breakfast this morning before they were all picked up at 10 o'clock by their parents. Besides her younger siblings bothering Lia and her guests throughout the evening and this morning, I think that she had a great time celebrating her 14th birthday with her closest friends at her side.

The simple tablescape Lia helped me set up for her friends before they arrived.

The gold confetti, rose gold ornaments, and pink and gold cupcakes that made up the centerpiece of the table.

A close-up of the cupcakes.

The large, number one and number four balloons that I hung on the windows behind the kitchen table.

Our grown up, 14 year old girl standing next to her balloons on the porch.

A close-up of the birthday girl.

Mollie, Sienna, Lia, Elle, and Rian eating their pizza dinner after everyone arrived.

Lia enjoyed opening up gifts from her friends.  Like always, we had the gift giver sit at Lia's side while she opened her gift.  Here is Lia and Sienna.

Lia showing off her new stuffed animal, Jose, who is meant to go with Ella's stuffie named Jeffrey.  Such silly girls.

Lia checking out the new book from Mollie.

Lia and Rian.

The birthday girl waiting to be sung to by the group.

Blowing out her candles!

The girls dressed in their pajamas ready to start watching the movie, "Ever After, " that came out 25 years ago and that I introduced Lia to when she was a little girl.  She decided to show this to her friends and was happy to learn that none of them had ever seen it.

The five girls eating breakfast this morning at the end of their slumber party.

Taking Lia to See Imagine Dragons

I have been a fan of Imagine Dragons for the past several years as they have become one of my favorite bands behind U2 and Coldplay.  As Lia has gotten older, she has started to develop her own taste in music and Imagine Dragons is one of the bands where our tastes line up and she has grown to love their music just as much as me in the last year or two.  So when I was driving home late one night in September and heard over the radio that their tickets were going on sale the very next week, I decided right then and there that I would buy the two of us tickets for their concert as Lia's big Christmas present.  After asking the mothers of two of her friends if they wanted to join us, I found out from Renee that she and her daughter, Elle, wanted to join us which made it twice as fun.  So, I got on the computer right at 10 o'clock in the morning right as the tickets went on sale and found the four of us seats in the lowest section directly across from the front of the stage.  

When we showed up last night, both Renee and I were blown away by how great our seats were.  They were the best seats that both of us have ever had a concert and blew the socks off of the nose bleed section seats that I had in the same arena back in October (but costs me twice as much since Coldplay apparently can get away with demanding those kinds of prices).  The girls and the moms then sat through the second half of the opening band before waiting another 30 or so minutes for Imagine Dragons to come on the stage at 8:15.  They then played for a solid two hours and it was absolutely amazing!  The lead singer, Dan Reynolds, has such a positive, warm, and lovely personality and I really enjoyed listening to everything he said in between songs.  In addition, he did such a great job giving every song his all and we all got a kick out of how funny he danced around in a silly jig a lot of the evening.  Their songs were incredible to listen to as well as their special effects and the constantly changing videos and images being played on the large screen behind the stage.  It was so fun to watch these two girls shed their teenage insecurities and dance and sing the night away.  It was such a great night and we loved every minute of it...except for getting home at almost midnight on a school night.  Needless to say, both Lia and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7 this morning and I had no problem dropping Lia off at school over an hour late!  

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After parking our car in Seattle, we walked about 15 minutes to eat a delicious dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant.  Here are Lia and Elle enjoying their dinners before the show.

Since the new Climate Pledge Arena is in the shadow of the Space Needle, we had to get a picture of the girls in front of it before entering the arena.

The large Imagine Dragons sign that greeted us as we entered the arena.

The girls in front of the sign.

Renee, Elle, Lia, and me all lined up and ready to go.

The girls chose to order matching Imagine Dragons in advance to wear to the concert. Here they are showing off the back side of their shirt that says "Follow You" which is one of Imagine Dragon's newest songs.

Lia taking a selfie of the three of us after finding our seats in the arena.

The girls waiting for the show to begin!

Dan Reynolds singing from inside the spotlight while singing "Thunder."

A close up of Dan singing "Whatever It Takes."

The beautiful image that constantly changed colors on the large screen while the band performed "Follow You."

The awesome image with the name of the band's latest album that they displayed on the screen right after they walked off the stage at the end of the concert.  Goodbye, Imagine Dragons!  Thanks for putting on such an amazing show and for giving us such a wonderful evening!

Logan's DEFY Birthday Party!

After discovering Defy Sports in Tacoma last November during Aunt Blanche's visit, I decided that this should be the place for Logan's 10th birthday party.  Although I have always hosted all of our children's friend birthday parties under our own roof (and saved us a lot of money in the process), I figured that the days of boys coloring pictures, making a craft, and playing games before opening gifts and eating dessert were probably over.  As a result, this seemed like the perfect solution for what to do for Logan's upcoming birthday party.  I intentionally pushed it back until the weekend after our big trip to California because I knew that my nerves just wouldn't handle hosting this party very well the weekend before we left as there was so much I needed to do before leaving on February 19th.  This turned out to be a very wise decision as I barely was able to summon the energy to host it six days after returning.

All eight boys arrived around 5 p.m. when I told parents to drop them off.  I quickly learned that nine boys (Logan included) at this age create a very loud and rambunctious group and was very grateful that we only had to keep them in our home for a little over an hour before leaving for Defy.  Ron helped me serve them up a pizza dinner with some of Logan's favorite sides (apple slices, carrot sticks, and Ruffles potato chips) with his favorite drink, Root Beer.  After the boys quickly devoured their dinner, we ushered them into the family room where Logan opened his gifts at a very fast pace.  We were blown away by some of the generosity of these boys including a $50 Visa gift card and $40 in cash!  Needless to say, this money will be going straight into his bank account.  Lastly, we had the boys return to the kitchen so they could sing "Happy Birthday" to Logan and eat a cupcake and some ice cream.  We moved fast to keep all nine boys from unravelling into pure chaos and also to ensure that we were out the door no later than 6:15 as we needed to arrive at Defy (a 30 minute drive away) 15 minutes before our 7 o'clock reservations.

All of the boys, plus Lia, Ella, and Emmett had a great time running around Defy for the next hour jumping on trampolines, flying down on ziplines, playing dodge ball, and swinging on high swings.  They all worked up a sweat and burned off some serious energy.  Ella's friend, Elise, came right at 7 p.m. to join her.  Since her brother was already at the party, I had told her mom that she was welcome to join us at our start time and so the two of them ran around together the entire time.  Lia and Ron kept an eye on Emmett while I walked around the facility the entire time trying to make sure that nine boys were accounted for.  At the end of the evening, we gathered up everyone for a group picture before heading out the door to bring them all home by 9 p.m.  It was a successful evening and Logan and his friends had a great time, but Ron and I both agreed that the days of hosting a large group of boys are most likely over for Logan as it is just too much noise and energy and chaos.  I think that from here on out, I will let Logan choose a small group of friends (like 2 or 3) to take on a small outing somewhere.  It's time to simplify a few things in my life...

Since I always need some sort of theme to guide my party decorating, I decided to use Defy Sports as my inspiration.  I decorated with the colors found in the facility of black, silver, purple, and blue.

I printed out little cards with Defy's emblem on them and scattered them around the table with silver and black confetti.

I decorated cupcakes with silver and blue sprinkles and placed them in the middle of the table as the center piece.  Overall, this was the simplest I have every decorated for a birthday party, but I figured at this point, 10-year old boys really could care less!

All nine boys eating their pizza dinner.

Logan showing off one of the Lego sets he received as a gift.

Logan looking at the $50 gift card he received in amazement!

Logan showing off his National Geographic science kit he received from his cousin, Trenton.

A group picture I managed to take of the boys after opening gifts:

Top row from left to right:  Anthony, Logan, Connor, Trenton, Mason, and Bennett

Bottom row from left to right:  Sebastian, Benton, and Jett

Trenton requested a neck hold picture with Logan as they were heading back to the kitchen.

Logan waiting for the group to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

The boys singing away!

Logan "flapping" out his candles with a plate to prevent him from blowing germs all over the cupcakes.

Logan enjoying his cake and ice cream.

Logan swinging out on the giant swing above the foam pit after arriving at Defy.

Cousins taking a break from the trampolines for a picture.

Logan trying to get to the top of the climbing wall.

Trenton trying to dodge the rotating arm that swings around another foam pit.

Cute Ella and Elise posing at the top of the zip line platform.

Emmett was super brave and flew down the zip line several times.  It was so cute to watch as he just looked so little up there compared to all of the other children!

The group all sweaty and ready to head home!

Lia's Belated 14th Birthday!

After a long, 2-day drive back to Puyallup, we arrived home Sunday evening.  I then had to turn around the next day and weed through piles of laundry, mail, and emails in addition to grocery shopping and taking care of several other things after being gone for nine days while getting ready to host Lia's belated, birthday party that night.  Needless to say, it was a tall order to get everything ready by dinner time and I was exhausted when I went to bed that night, but it was important to me to host Lia's dinner that evening as we have a very busy week ahead of us.  My parents arrived around 4:30 and we sat down to eat around 6:30.  The three younger kids were really excited and full of energy to just be home and to have the grandparents visiting.  Lia was also very excited to officially celebrate her 14th birthday and to open her gifts that I had purchased and wrapped before we left on our trip.  Although it was so much fun to actually be in Disneyland on her birthday, it was nice to be able to officially celebrate her birthday tonight with the grandparents back at our home.

After eating Lia's requested birthday dinner of breakfast-for-dinner (that included egg casserole, bacon, and cinnamon rolls), we gathered in the living room to watch her open gifts.  The highlight for Lia was opening a very decorated envelope with a letter inside informing her that she is going to the Olivia Rodrigo concert in April with her good friend, Alyssa.  Needless to say, she was very excited to learn this as she has been hoping for months that we bought tickets back in December when they first went on sale.

Like always, Logan dragged down his blankets during the party and ended up buried in a pile of them with Emmett on the couch next to grandpa.

Lia holding up her awesome, Enola Holmes t-shirt that I found for her on etsy.

Lia standing in disgust as her three siblings rolled around in the amazingly soft, throw rug I got for her to put on her bedroom floor.  Logan, Ella, and Emmett spent most of the rest of the evening laying on this rug in the foyer.

Grandpa even laid down on it for a few minutes while Logan and Emmett drove cars and trucks all over his back (one of his favorite things anyone can do for him).

After gift opening, we came back into the dining room to sing "Happy Birthday" to Lia and to eat her favorite banana cream pie.

Lia blowing out all 14 candles with Ella photo bombing in the background.

Emmett and Lia enjoying their dessert.

Mom posing with her birthday girl with Emmett and Ella at our side.

Lia standing with her beloved grandparents whom she has always had close relationship with ever since she was a little girl.  We are so lucky that they live close enough to drive down for these special occasions.

Ella showing off her incredible flexibility while lounging on Lia's new rug after the birthday party was over and the grandparents had left for home.  Oh that girl.