Let's go to the movies

Emily was so excited to have a birthday party this year.  Her birthday fell during Spring Break which allowed us to have an afternoon party on the day of her Birthday!  She got so excited when she realized that she was born at 2pm and her party was going to start at 2 pm.  All week long she was counting down the days until her party.  On Wed she announced that tomorrow I will be able to say "Tomorrow is my birthday."   She had so many ideas of what to do.  At first she wanted to go to Chucky Cheese.  I told her that was fine but she could only invite like 1 friend.  Emily said she would rather have a big party so a home party was the other option.  She wanted to have the party at the park.  That would have been easy but April is too unpredictable to guarantee the weather would cooperate.  She wanted her friends to bring their favorite stuffed animal and the party evolved from a Teddy Bear Picnic to a "movie theme" party.

First things first my sister Allyson, who is always so willing to help with graphic design stuff, came up with these movie ticket invitations.  I only had the digital copy left but if you cut in the middle it becomes two invitations. 

 After the guests had arrived we went outside to the driveway and played a game of "Sidewalk Chalk movie pictionary"  Basically they took turns picking a piece of paper out of a bowl with a popular movie.  The made a drawing of the movie while the others tried to guess what movie it was.

We then went inside and played this matching game where you match the saying with the right movie.  

At this point everyone wanted Emily to open their present so we took a break from the games and Emily opened presents.

These glasses were the hit of the party!  Who says you need to spend a lot of money on gifts? 

 After the presents were opened the kids broke off into 2 groups and with their stuffed animal they went outside and made up a movie.  After some time I came out and filmed their creation.  Then we came inside and watched the 2 movies.  The girls loved seeing their movie on the big screen.

Next up was cake time.  I loved that these cupcakes were so easy and Emily approved. 

With some time to spare one of the girls suggested they take the water stick Emily got from one of the guests and go outside and have a water fight.  I've never been so happy for nice weather and a big back yard.  They were all in heaven running around.

 I spent some time on the internet and with Emily's approval we made some goodie bags for the guests to take home.