birthday eve

on the eve of my birthday, my mom organized a party with some of the friends i've been spending time with this summer. my mom spent a good chunk of time (thrifty) decorating and planning food and activities for the evening.

when my friends arrived, they had to find their place at the table (there were bags with their names on them marking their place) - and took their white party hat out to the patio where we decorated them with crayons.

ever since having a blast at stella's birthday party 2 weeks ago i've wanted many details of my own party to be just like stella's (well, mostly just that i wanted a scavenger hunt, and a number4 candle on my cake) .. SO, after we decorated our hats, we each grabbed the bags with our names on it and found a map inside for my own scavenger hunt. it showed a plan of our house and our yard - with 6 numbered locations. we needed to follow our own (specific/different) order of numbers in order to find all of the treasures. we got annie's cheddar & honey bunnies, a granola bar, an egg full of gummy bears, a pencil and pad of paper (that my mom made) with our names on it, and a red LEGO key chain!

once we found all of the treasures, i had the great idea to open presents -since the pizza wasn't quite ready to eat yet - and i got some of the coolest gifts! legos, MACK, magnetic Robots, a new book (The Little House) and some "ice cream money" (Joe bucks from Sebastion Joes so that we can go out for ice cream!!) and with each gift, i received lovely cards made by my friends.

After gifts - and after some tasty salads (from the garden) and home-spun cheese take&bake pizzas from Papa Murphy's ... each of us got our own LEGO cake. they were the square shaped legos with 4 nobs on the top - perfect for 4 little candles (bummer i didn't get my number 4) and all of my friends even got a candle in the middle of theirs - so that we all could make a wish and blow them out together!

this is the first year that my mom has gone to this extent to plan a birthday party. i think it was worth it! when she asked me what my favorite part of the evening was, i said,"EVERYTHING!"

tomorrow - on my actual birthday - my cousins lussi, sofia, taavi, marin & mason are coming to another party. my grandparents and aunts and uncles will also be there! i don't know it yet - but there is a package waiting for me from EELI! i'm going to be so surprised!!!!!