Rylee's 7th

i'm finally posting rylee's birthday party pictures. between halloween, thanksgiving, sophie's birthday, christmas, new year's and rylee's birthday, i get a little drained. so rylee's party was slightly late this year (and by slightly, i mean over a month late). i know, right? most of you might be thinking (at least i know my mother is....love you mom) are wondering why do i do such parties then? i'm obsessed with them! they bring me joy! i'm always looking for an excuse to throw a party. i'm constantly thinking up new ideas and theme's just to decorate and have people over. it's a sick hobby of mine (just like shopping), but they are both very therapeutic. =) rylee has known for a while now that she wanted a "beach party". it is so fun to see how much she gets into the "ideas" of her party. she's very creative. and alot of times i will use her ideas in parties that i'm throwing, although some of her ideas i was not willing to budge on (aka, dumping sand all over our house so it looked like a beach).

i remembered how easy it was to have sophie's party on location somewhere else, so we opted for that idea. we invited 15 of her closest friends from school and church to come to the local community center to have cake, open presents and swim! it was so great! since it has been so cold, it was nice for them to actually get a taste of what swimming was like again.

my mother was also in town that week, keeping me company while chad was away on business. so she was also able to attend rylee's party as well. thank you MOM for all the help and support you gave. it was much needed and we all miss you so much already. please come back!!! love you!

here is her invitation i made:

and here is what they looked like when they went out for delivery:

here is her cake, which i just LOVED!:

here are the girls snacking on some fruit and chips (i asked rylee to think of food she would eat at a beach and that is what she came up with).

i didn't get a picture of the goodie bags, but i got them here. and then i added a miniature beach ball in each one, sunglasses and sweedish fish.

all in all, i think it was successful. and the birthday girl was smiling and talking about it for days after. happy birthday party rylee. we love you!