And just like that, she is past the half-way mark to double digits... Seriously, where does the time go?
April 22nd fell on a Friday this year, and was the first day of our church wide retreat out in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia at Capon Springs. Since we'd be away the majority of birthday weekend, Maelee's party was held on the 17th, the Saturday before. Even though she doesn't play "tea party" that frequently, it was the only recurring theme she'd mention when I'd ask what kind of party she wanted, so that's what she got! :)
My parents left for vacation the day before and were gracious to let us use their home as our tea party backdrop. My mom got out beautiful glass and crystal serving ware she had collected from Europe and Maelee was completely tickled at how fancy and special everything was. Steve and I decorated and set-up earlier in the day, then we made Maelee almost late to her own party as I made the hilarious mistake of trying a quick hack, er, trim of her bangs just a half hour before everything was to begin... Oops. We pulled in literally at start time and all the guests were there less than five minutes later.
Let the party begin!
April 22nd fell on a Friday this year, and was the first day of our church wide retreat out in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia at Capon Springs. Since we'd be away the majority of birthday weekend, Maelee's party was held on the 17th, the Saturday before. Even though she doesn't play "tea party" that frequently, it was the only recurring theme she'd mention when I'd ask what kind of party she wanted, so that's what she got! :)
My parents left for vacation the day before and were gracious to let us use their home as our tea party backdrop. My mom got out beautiful glass and crystal serving ware she had collected from Europe and Maelee was completely tickled at how fancy and special everything was. Steve and I decorated and set-up earlier in the day, then we made Maelee almost late to her own party as I made the hilarious mistake of trying a quick hack, er, trim of her bangs just a half hour before everything was to begin... Oops. We pulled in literally at start time and all the guests were there less than five minutes later.
Let the party begin!
Fancy rings and Maelee's hand painted tea set accessories.
The cake!
I am no decorator so the flowers helped!
As did the six candles that Maelee placed in the front :)
Table is set and ready for teacup painting!
Quick dance party to get some energy out before the sit-down activities!
Sweet pose in between the silly and the "fancy" ones.
Well... they don't look that excited in this pic, but I promise they seemed to be enjoying painting their tea cups!
I had the girls do some sugar cube "blocks" play while I switched out the painted tea sets for fine crystal and tea party refreshments :)
What I was thinking trying to pull this off by myself??? Sigh... I was pretty exhausted.
But these little ladies used their best manners and were adorable with their pinkies rasied high as they sipped pink lemonade and juice!
Time for Pin the Tea Cup under the Tea!
My sweet girl was not even close... her tea cup didn't even land on the door!
But she took it pretty well!
Ah well...
Several others fared pretty well, however!
Time for cake!!!
Make a wish :)
My happy, fancy girl :)
Like I said, I'm really not sure what I was thinking trying to pull this off by myself. I was SO glad when Steve & Lilee came back from the park for cake time!!! I kept asking Maelee afterward, "are you sure you had a good time???" Cause it was such a blur to me, I was hardly sure what had just happened... But she said she loved it so that's all that mattered.
Slideshow of party pics:
Yep, those are some of those fancy rings on her ears...
Then on the big morning, we woke up the birthday girl a little early so she could open presents and have her favorite breakfast, chocolate chip pancakes.
Then Steve, Lilee, and I showed up at Maelee's school for a surprise birthday lunch date with mini cupcakes in hand. We ran into her teacher on the way to the cafeteria and she laughed that Maelee cried, "there's no dessert!" when she opened her lunch bag...
Got you covered, sweet girl!
One loved birthday girl :)
(Looks like Lilee wants another cupcake!)
We left early Friday evening for our retreat in West Virginia and stopped at a little podunk diner close to the VA/WV border for dinner. We weren't expecting much, but I did let the hostess know that it was Maelee's birthday and I checked out their dessert selection. We ended up being very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food and were so tickled when the staff came out singing to Maelee with a huge slice of chocolate cake and candle!
Happy girl :)
Maelee stayed up till after 11pm that night, after enjoying some yummy roasted marshmallows and chatting with her church friends- I think she had a good day. :)
My parents were still out of town that weekend, so we had them over the next Monday for more cupcakes and more gifts.
My parents were still out of town that weekend, so we had them over the next Monday for more cupcakes and more gifts.
She has two stuffed angler fish, so why not?! :)
After loving the movie, "Zootopia," which prominently featured a sloth (who worked at the DMV, haha), she has loved getting to know these docile creatures better.
And Steve has loved positioning little "Slothy" napping in various hanging position throughout our house!
So thrilled to get the "laying down stroller" that she'd been wanting so bad!
Like Lilee, Maelee also got three separate birthday celebrations due to scheduling, etc, so it ended up being over a week of her basking in the joy of turning six.
Slideshow of more birthday pics:Some final shots of this sweet, beautiful face in our yearly "photo shoots," with a slideshow of more below.
