Birthday Party

Saturday after Lucia's actual birthday, we had her strawberry-themed birthday brunch. She invited all of her new friends in Texas, as well as our neighbors, Marc and Heidi. :)

Here she is getting the strawberries ready for the favor bags.  Rhea had a print-out of strawberries to color, too. :)

Then we cut out the strawberries (Lucia did the berry, I helped with the leaves) and glued them onto the bags.  Lucia wrote the name tags. :)

 Rhea is all excited about the fruit!

The kid table, starting with Rhea at the far head of the table, then clockwise: Eden (friend from the library), Lucia, Claire (daughter of Wheaton grad in the area), Emerson (daughter of different Wheaton grads in the area), and Tessa (friend from church).

The adults :) We had cinnamon rolls and quiche, strawberry lemonade, OJ, coffe and fruit.  The kids managed to polish off all the chocolate covered strawberries.  (I can't blame them... if they hadn't, I would've. :) )

Happy birthday, Lucia!

 (I had unintentionally included one "magic" candle among the five that relit several times - it was pretty funny.  This is Lucia's repeated attempt at blowing it out.)

 The major highlight of the party was Sneaker.  I had put him away, fearing the girls would stress him out.  But Lucia wanted to show him to her friends, so we let him come out.  He had a blast with all the crazy kiddos!  Lucia got some cat toys from her friend Tessa, and the girls all took turns playing with Sneaker. I was AMAZED that he put up with all the chaos!

 Lucia next to Eden (who is turning 5 in June.  Can you believe Lucia is only 1 month older?! :) )

 A close-up of the strawberry cupcakes. :)

All in all, it was a successful party!  I had planned games and activities for the girls, but they were very content playing independently and then, when we let the cat out, there was no further entertaining needed!!  I guess I'll save the games and prizes for another year. :)