Ellery Jane Webb

 My favorite Ellery turned 5 years old last month.  Days, actually weeks leading up to her birthday, it was so cute, she was super excited.  She kept looking at the calendar and counting down how many days were left.  The day of her birthday she opened her presents from me in the morning.  I gave her mostly clothes and a new swimming suit.  Boring, I know but I knew she'd be getting more stuff later.  That night Jacob surprised her and came home (he was supposed to be in Price).  Then we all went to IHOP for dinner with my family as well.  I think this might turn out to be a little tradition, since that is where she picked to go last year on her birthday.  After dinner we came back to our house and she opened presents from my mom and dad.  She was super duper extra hyper and excited all night.  She and Aayla both loved her new easel and art supplies.  This girl seriously loves to color.  We then had mini cupcakes that I just bought at the store.  I was making a big cake a few days later for her friend party and didn't want to make two.  

I few days after her actual birthday she had a party with some of her friends.  Ellery was very insistent on having a Peter Pan party.  She wanted to dress up like Peter Pan and have Aayla be Tinkerbell.  I made both of their costumes.  Both were actually pretty easy to make.  I couldn't find any green leggings for Peter Pan's pants and was running out of time to make some, so I just used some pajama bottoms she already had that were the perfect color (thanks Monica)!  I thought they looked great!  I also didn't get around to making a hat for Ellery so I just put a red feather in her hair and she didn't mind.  The party ended up being really fun.  I didn't take as many pictures as I wished I had, but oh well.  I hung green streamers from our archway going into the family room and taped up the word NEVERLAND on them.  The party was supposed to be at Neverland and we went around to the different areas.  Aayla aka Tinkerbell sprinkled everyone with pixie dust and gave them a magic wand, then we flied in together through the streamers.  The first place was Cannibal Cove, where Captain Hook's ship is.  I turned our couch around and tried to make it look like a ship.  I made a big cloud and hung it up along with cutouts of Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael and John.  I then had the kids 'help' Captain Hook shoot them down with cannon balls, which were black balloons.  They got a little toy telescope from Captain Hook for helping.  The next area was the Indian Camp.  I had Jacob draw a big tee pee on butcher paper and hung it up.  We made headbands with feathers here.  Then we went to the Mermaid Lagoon.  I again used blue streamers and circled off an area with them hanging from the ceiling.  Inside I had pictures of the mermaids from the movie.  There were sea shells they could pick from to keep.  I was going to have them decorate the shells with glue and glitter and sequins but decided that would be way to messy.  After that I pretended to find a treasure map that belonged to Captain Hook and we used it to find his treasure.  I had bought a styrofoam cooler and painted it to look like a treasure chest.  I thought it turned out nice, even Jacob complimented me on it!  It was so funny watching to kids open the treasure.  They were all super excited and started screaming when I opened it.  There were plastic and chocolate gold coins, gold necklaces, pirate pencils, gold and red candies, and I think some sort of plastic jewelery.  They dug in and took what they wanted.  It was pretty funny.  I told them they could take what they wanted and put it in their bag.  Some kids loaded up while others just got a few things.  I was going to do something at Skull Rock but didn't know what so I just didn't do anything with it.  Ellery opened her presents from them and then we had lunch.  I made mini cupcakes for them all.  I made her a big Peter Pan cake that was sitting out for all to see and it was funny cause they were all disappointed they didn't get to eat it.  I told them it was for later that night with her family.  Overall it was fun, but a lot of work.  I don't think I'll be throwing a big party like this again anytime soon.  

That night my family came over again and we dug into her cake, which by the way did not turn out at all how I wanted.  I simply ran out of time and energy and patience.  Definitely my worst cake.  The only thing that saved it is the figurines I bought for it.  Oh well, hopefully next years will be better.  I forgot to mention her big present from us....a new bike!  She was growing out of her little Dora bike.  We ended up getting her a Cars bike.  She had actually been asking specifically for a Cars bike for a long time.  There were a lot of other cute bike we could have gotten that are more girlish, but decided to just get her what she likes.  She is who she is!  Happy Happy Birthday girly!