Isabelle's SURPRISE Half Birthday Fiesta Bash

Planning and executing a surprise party is not for the faint of heart.

Especially a weather-dependent one living in an area like New England, where unpredictability is pretty much the norm.

But we did it, our half-birthday girl was completely surprised and had so much fun, and I lived to tell about it. Win win. :)

The entire week leading up to the big day, I stalked the weather report, as if that's going to change anything, and every few hours, the forecast would be entirely different. From thunderstorms to just cloudy, back to showers, then partially sunny...it was crazy! There were heavy downpours that morning, but I had a Plan B in case we couldn't go swimming, so I was determined to make the most of it. BUT the sun popped out around noon, and the rest of the day was glorious. Just absolutely beautiful.

A little backstory on the whole half birthday fiesta... since we have two December birthdays, we celebrate one in the beginning of December and celebrate Isabelle's later in January. It works for us. Well, this year, everyone and their uncle kept getting sick. Like really sick. This (school) year has gone down as the absolute worst in terms of fevers, coughs, colds, infections, and general illness. I blinked and March was here, and we had not celebrated our birthday girl. That's when I decided to throw her a pool party in June. Poor thing, she never asked about her party after it kept getting putting off- she must've thought we just weren't going to do it. :(

Decorations were simple but festive. I made just a couple flower poms, but most were from the dollar store in a package of two. Perfect. The rest was simply crepe paper streamers and balloons. It was so fun and colorful! I had arranged for Isabelle to hang out with my Mom that morning so I could decorate and finish the cake, and honestly, I did not get everything done. I ran out of time! And it was so, so sticky hot, which totally zaps my productivity. The cupcake cakes weren't how I wanted them; the rest of the streamers never got hung; I forgot to put out some of the food... and in the end, it didn't matter one bit. Everyone had such a good time, and I think anyone in a three-mile radius would agree, as they could probably hear the squeals and screams. Ten (and a half) year old girls are L-O-U-D, ha ha!

Here are some pictures of the day:

As she turned the corner and her friends yelled, "Surprise!" - love that grin!

Someone was feeling a bit left out that HE wasn't swimming.

 But Mimi and Grampy got some smiles...

And I know I've said it a million times, but the way Levi makes my Dad feel like a kid again is just the best thing in the world to watch.

Aw, look who's finally in the water! Big brother to the rescue!

In the middle of getting their dinner ready, I looked out at this scene and my heart nearly burst.  Laughter and love and friendship and fun. It really doesn't get any better than that.

There may have been some additional silliness for the blowing out of candles ;)

Lastly, we held the party from 3-6pm, so I bought some individual ready made pizza crusts (I think they came in a package o three) for the girls for dinner- we added the sauce and let them choose their toppings. Of course, when it was time to eat said pizza, they were all munching away on bags of chips and cookies- all the snacks I'd put out by the pool that I thought they'd eat when they first got out there. Oops. ha ha 

I also had apple juice, which no one touched, and Honest lemonade pouches, which clearly were the fave. So simple!

The only thing I'd really wanted to accomplish was taking Isabelle's portraits with the giant "10" balloons, and I was out of town all day Sunday (U2 concert...more about that later!), and then it has rained off and on since then, and now they are deflated enough to look kind of pitiful. So I don't know if I'll use them, but they were so ridiculously priced that I just may make it work. ;)

All in all, a wonderful celebration for our big girl!

Happy 10...and a half...my darling girl!