McKenna's Fourth Birthday Party!

I am soooooo glad we went with Hullabaloo's!! That place was worth every single penny! All of the walls were painted with trees and rainbows so it worked perfectly for the Wizard of Oz theme. You get an hour in the playroom and an hour and a half in the party room. But since we were the only party that night, we pretty much had the run of the place the whole night. They provided almost everything! I brought in things that I specifically wanted personalized (Dorothy plates, a birthday banner, the cake, some balloons) and a few items that they don't provide (ice and chips). But other than that...they did everything for us! They set up everything, cleaned up everything, wrote the gift list for us, carried the gifts to the car, served the pizza, served the cake. They had excellent service. I was really pleased with how easy they made it all.

And the place was so fun! It's one big clubhouse - a bounce-house obstacle course, a big treehouse with slides, a karaoke stage, air hockey and foosball, a puppet show box, a toddler area. The kids had a blast. We had the entire place to ourselves which was great because we had about 40 adults and kids. We were able to just let the kids run wild and the place was completely safe. Even the younger ones like Kyla and Gavin could run free and they were able to get up on all the toys. You didn't have to worry about them getting hurt on anything, falling off of anything, getting taken by strangers. All the parents were actually able to relax and socialize with each other. I think that's the first time I've thrown a birthday party and been able to talk to all of our guests! Erick and I were thrilled about that because we had invited so many people that we wanted to catch up with.

That was the other thing....it was really nice having so many people show up. We missed those of you who couldn't come of course. But I was really happy that so many were able to come. I was thinking how amazing it is to have so many wonderful families in our lives. Almost our entire immediate family was there, friends from church, friends from McKenna's school, friends I've known since high school, friends Erick has known since high school, playdate friends... I felt very blessed to have all of them there. And all of the kids, ALL of them did great. I didn't see a single fight, a single tantrum, nothing. It would be totally expected for that to happen what with all the kids running around and all the sugar pumping through their veins and the fact that the party went until 8pm. LOL! But no - everyone did great!!

And oh yes, McKenna did get quite spoiled by her friends and family. She sort of ripped through the presents at warp speed. She'd open it, say thank you and move on to the next one. But once we got home and she took the time to look through them again, she was MUCH more enthusiastic! I can't even remember all that she got. Lots of clothes, several games, a Barbie castle doll house, her new bedding set, an Easy Bake Oven, accessories for her Easy Bake Oven, an apron that Auntie had personalized for her (it says Princess McKenna on it), a few different dolls, a princess purse, a Tinkerbell bank, a princess dress up set for the BATH (LOL now she can dress like a princess no matter where she goes!) My Dad & Cheryl found a miniature version of my wedding ring (fake diamonds of course) and got her that because they know how she likes to wear "wedding rings". And I kid you not, the present she spent the most time staring at was a box of Kleenex. LOL! Cheryl had spotted a box of Kleenex with this shimmery scene from Peter Pan on the outside. So she bought it just because she knows how much McKenna loves the movie and then threw it into the gift bag with the rest of the presents. McKenna was enthralled with it! LOL! It was too funny!

I've got tons of pics for you. My Mom sent me all of hers so I combined ours together into one Shutterfly album. Erick and I tend to snap a cute shot if we know it's coming but my Mom's always really good about taking pictures of the details, the decorations, trying to get as many pictures of the guests as she can. I wish I'd thought to take a group picture of all the kids. McKenna would have loved that. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

Thank you, thank you to all who came! It was so wonderful to see everyone and to get to actually spend time with you! McKenna is enjoying all of the generous gifts you guys gave her and she's looked at the pictures countless times, talking about how much fun she had and how much she loves her friends and family. It was really special for our whole family to have everyone there. Thank you!

PICTURES HERE (I started with some shots of the goodie bags for my digi friends to see.)