Celebrating Angelina's 5th Birthday

Angelina has been asking, oh, since December, when her birthday party would be. I explained July. When is that? "When it gets hot again." Only it's been hotter than hell since April. She's been to tons of birthday parties all year, and has been not so patiently waiting for her own. In the past week, every morning she'd wake saying "Is today my party?"

Finally, FINALLY, the day of the party arrived!


Her actual birthdate is July 3, but because that's usually a holiday weekend, we've been having her party early. This year, we celebrated June 26, which also happens to be our Swiss Wedding Anniversary (7 years!).






Invited were all the kids in her class, a bunch of neighborhood playmates, assorted other friends with kids. Turned out to be quite the shindig!

Angelina is absolutely obsessed with an out of production PBS show, Dragon Tales (we watch on Netflix). I'm not good with theme birthday parties, but I thought I'd try...

This year we have our pool up (3ft x 15ft), kiddie pool for the little guys, trampoline, and thanks to our wonderful neighbor Fredo, who initially asked me months ago if we'd be having a party because he really wanted to hire a pony (he knew a guy...), pony rides. All this turning our house into quite the Fun House.




And having heard my Dad say enough times that no matter how many adults are around during a party, someone must be lifeguard, I took it to heart and asked our neighborhood teen/housesitter to act as lifeguard during the party. Best decision ever. even though it's only 3 ft deep, with 15+ kids playing in it it can get a bit crazy, and it'd be hard for parents to really watch, esp. if they also have a younger kid around.

The ponies were a huge hit, once the kids got over the shock. I didn't tell anyone, including most of the parents, so it was a surprise for all. The kids were more surprised than excited at first, but then they loved it. Most got to have multiple rides.


Then back to the pool.

Then the piñata.

Then singing Happy Birthday.

And back to the pool.

A great party!