Let's celebrate EiGhT!!!!

Lilly was beyond excited about her birthday this year! Like crazy, super, non-stop excited and somewhat annoying (lol) excited! Everyone and anyone knew her birthday was coming up because she NEVER stopped talking about it...

So- we made sure it was a good one. On the morning of her birthday, she awoke to this:

(sorry, still having problems with blogger not rotating my photos)

 We covered the outside of her door with streamers and she had to break her way out....fun stuff. We did a similar prank to Mac on his b-day. click here to see it- mac turns 12

 Lilly thought is was awesome. We had her open her b-day gifts from us and sent her off to school. I made her a special sash to wear, sent in cupcakes for her to share with her classmates and we even sent her flowers. She was beaming and felt pretty darn special.

She had to wait a few days for her big party that I had been busy planning. She didn't know where it was going to be and the suspense was just driving her batty!

Finally party day arrived and WOW...we had a blast!!!!

I had decided her party was going to be all about playing games,exercising and having fun.

We played a BIG game of Twister, Kick-ball with balloons (we put bouncy balls inside the balloons before blowing them up), Potato Sack Races, a Jump Rope Competition, a Pinata, Dancing, a fun game of Limbo and Tug-of-War. The adults even got in on the fun!

I also had bikes, scooters and small play structures for the little one's that were there.

I managed to grab a few photos just before we left to get everything set-up. My mom made it up and spent the weekend with us. She helped me get stuff ready and helped keep Griff busy while I made Lilly's cake! Thanks Mom!

We were also lucky to have Momma B come over early to help us get everything loaded and on it's way to the party room. She is always a big help. She also gave Lilly her gift to open early-

She got a Nutcracker! Momma B has a neat collection of them and ever since Lilly set eyes on them, she has wanted one of her own...alas she has one (0:

Once we made it to the community center and got everything decorated and ready...it was time to party!

Our first game was Twister. I taped six game mats together to make a giant game board, so everyone could play at one time. It was pretty cool!

 Some of these kids were super-pro at this game and we could not get them to fall over, so we decided to have the kids that were out of the game do an "attack" with the balloons while the players were trying to move...

 ...it only worked on a few of them! I eventually called the game and had fun knocking them over myself- HA!!!

They have big mirrors in the rec room we rented, so I rounded up mirror markers and all the kids had a great time drawing and writing messages to Lilly-

Next game was Potato Sack Races and Relay!

 After the kids raced each other, it was time for the adults to join in!

Even our rockin' Grandma's were up for the challenge (0:

 It was then time for the Jump Rope Challenge- if you haven't jumped rope in awhile...you should try it!

 Go Lilly!

All the kids were getting pretty darn tired at this point and were even asking me for a "water break"...ha, how's that for a birthday bash! I let them all take a quick break and spent some time chasing around the little one's that were having fun on the scooters and trikes. Most of Lilly's friends watched the slide show I had made with a bunch of Lilly's pictures from years past. A lot of them were in the photos with her and it was amazing to see how much they have all changed since pre-school, etc!

 Mac played a lot of the games, but was also busy helping us out. He helped load up everything, un-load it when we arrived, set-up, play, tear down, clean up and re-load it all again to get home. Thanks Mac for all your help and for making your lil' sister's b-day rock!

Our next activities were the pinata, a crazy game of limbo and another break to eat some hot dogs, sing Happy Birthday to Lilly and have some CaKe!!!

I always make the kids' cakes...and they usually turn out awesome and look great! I was running way SHORT on time making Lilly's this year. It was super yummy, but not so pretty on the outside...LOL. I didn't have time to snap a photo of the inside of the cake- it was tye-dyed, so it was a swirl of all different bright colors! It looked awesome! It must not have mattered to any of our guests becasue they loved it and thought it was awesome....I even had a gal come up and request that I make her one for her bithday! 

( I am on it sweet Annika! )

After cake time and full belly's-

The game of Tug-a-War was on!

 It was nuts! kids vs. kids, kids vs. adults, adults vs. kids...they didn't want to stop!

Oh man....good fun!

I think we were all a bit tuckered out by quitin' time...but it was a great party.

A HUGE thank you to all my helpers- you know who you are! Thanks for helping make Lilly's 8th birthday an awesome one!

Love every single one of you (0: