Birthday Girl!

Ashlyn is 11yrs. old!!!

Such a great age!  

We have a rule that you can have big birthday parties with lots of friends until you turn 11ys.  When the kids turn 16, we'll have another big bash.  In the meantime, the kids can plan a little movie, or restaurant with a friend or two, but not a huge friend party.  Well, Ashlyn was very stressed by this rule and begged us to make an exception!  She didn't want to hurt any of the girl's feelings and really wanted a big party.  So I told her if she could get permission from her three older siblings who had followed the rule, I'd let her plan a big party.  

The older kids said "Sure"!  (wow, easier than I thought!)

So Ashlyn and I planned a big bash once again!  

Ashlyn is an amazing party planner, she plans out the whole thing for me.  I am so amazed at her creativity and organizational skills at such a young age.

The girl did it all....

Invitations

(she invited 18 of her closest friends, and they all came!)

Food

Games

Decorations 

(with a color scheme :)

and a supply list.

She really outdid herself this year, and planned a fantastic party!

(I overheard some of the girls talking and one of them said, "Ashlyn always has the best parties!")

We started out by making homemade pizza's.  I learned several things that I will do better next time:

1.  Ask if any of the guests has a gluten allergy..yup, we had one in the bunch that I didn't know about.  

2.  Make sure the girls ALL spray their wax paper with non-stick spray, otherwise the dough sticks to the paper and it is a pain to try to get it off and onto the pan. (only a few of them listened to that instruction..:) 

3.  Find a way to mark the pizza's.  One of the girls doesn't like sauce, but someone else took hers unknowingly, so I made her a corn dog.  She was a good sport.

After the girl's ate they divided into teams and prepared skits from skit bags Ashlyn had prepared. 

I look at it as getting them ready for girl's camp!! Yay!

Playing around!

Performing the skits for everyone. Taylor was our videographer.  Unfortunately we ran out of time, and didn't show the videos.  We're just going to have to have another party I guess!  

Maybe when School's out...

Karl took the girls to the church for some glow in the dark tag. 

Karl was a great sport, but I did over hear him say...

"Oh, so many girls!  I think I need to run to Home Depot to get some testosterone back!"

We only had a little drama...

After the glow in the dark games, the girls decorated their own cupcakes.

Presents of course!!! 

(18 of them!!! Agh!)

Ashlyn received a bike.  

Karl, Ashlyn and I had a date looking for the perfect one!  We found this at a bike store, but had to order the color she wanted, so it came a week after her birthday.  

She loves the old fashioned beach cruisers.  

Isn't it darling?