Valentine's Day + Katelyn's Birthday

Noah trying to help with breakfast

breakfast

cupcakes decorated by the girls

Valentine's found on the doorstep

This Valentine's Day was great. Full of love, laughter, cracked eggs, heart french toasts, unicorns, cupcake decorating with Grandma Merrell, finding Valentine's on the doorstep, Olive Garden, Carl's Junior for the kids, playtime, and Wii time. It was kind of a low key day and it was kind of nice. Nothing really too exciting . Patrick and I got to go by ourselves for dinner because Grandma wanted to have the kids over that night. So that was great. Katelyn got a shirt with a dinosaur on it - super cute. Maddie got a unicorn named Goldie(she is pinkalicious's unicorn) and she was thrilled. Noah got some cool bubbles. He was more interested in the candy though !!

Katelyn turned 6 yesterday !! And I still can't believe it. We started out her birthday with the typical Niebuhr way, eating breakfast at Johanna's Kitchen. While we were there Paul and Tona wanted to do a Skype call and talk to Katelyn. (They are over in Greece) So Patrick called him using his iphone and that was wonderful to talk to them. We came home and it was time for Katelyn to go to school.

She wanted a toy story themed birthday this year and so we searched and searched for a cake idea. Not really much luck. Everything was too hard to make, so we found a simple one that I could kind of copy. And here she is. Not the fanciest thing ever, but she loved it. She wanted it to be a surprise and asked me to make her cake while she was at school. So I got the cake put together and decorated just in the nick of time. She came home to find her cake sitting on the table and she loved it !! I was so relieved. For the next few hours we were busy transforming the house into Party Central.

Party started at 6 and I think it really turned out great. Here is a picture of some of the table. 

 

When the kids arrived, they were given a Sherrif Woody Badge with their name on it. 

 We started out making Mr. Potato Heads. I had scanned in some of the Potato Head parts, colored them and then printed them out. The kids loved it. 

 

 

Here they are all on the wall. I had them tape them on the wall when they were done. 

We then played Musical Chairs to the Toy Story song "You've got a friend in me." And I think that was the kids favorite part of the night. They wanted to keep playing it. I didn't get a good picture of them. Oh well. 

The next activity was Zurg's Balloon Blaster. I had gotten some balloons and pinned them to a cork board. The kids took turns throwing the dart at the balloon to try to pop it. The kids loved it and would jump up and down when they popped their balloon.

  

Some of the decorations were in 3D and so the kids were given some 3D glasses to wear. 

 The kids also went on a scavenger hunt to save Woody and then a Search and Rescue Mission to find the army men. I sure hope the kids had fun doing all their activities. 

Next was dinner of pizza, alien jello, fruit, and alien punch. 

 

This next picture is the reason why I do what I do when it comes to birthday parties. The countless hours looking for party and game ideas. The tedious hours spent in photoshop making badges and Mr. Potato head pieces.  The three hours spend making and decorating the cake. This single most precious moment of the night was worth all the time, effort, and planning. To see Katelyn's happy face as she sits in front of her cake, all her family and friends singing her happy birthday. That moment makes it all worth it. So happy birthday sweetheart.

 

And with that said I am going to rest now. I am exhausted.