Kylie's Florida Birthday Party

Kylie won't be 6 for a few weeks and we'll have just arrived in CA for her actual birthday, so I wanted her to have a little party here with a few of her friends before we left. As usual, I contemplated how many kids to invite and what age because many of MY friends have young kids. She chose a few friends from church, another family who home schools and some of our military friends. We chose NOT to invite the soccer team. There are 9 girls on the team including Kylie and Ava and that would have been way too many kids. Everything I've read for party planning suggests one kid per age the child is turning, so we kinda got closer this year. We chose to have her party at the location in which the girls do gymnastics, and they have a limit on how many kids can come with their packaged rate, so that helped narrow down the number of kids as well.

I think Jonathan was more excited about going than the girls, and that is probably because they go to gymnastics every week. They did let the kids run around the gym for an hour and play on any of the equipment they wanted and the girls liked being able to just run and use equipment they've never been on before.

Excuse the quality of these photos. I'm going to whine briefly on how I want a new camera. I'm sure I could adjust my point and shoot for inside where its darker and the kids are moving fast, but I think that would all just fix itself with a better camera. Okay, that's it.

Jonathan practicing his mount onto a balance beam.

Kylie climbing a rope.

Juliet on top of some thing I have no idea what it is.

Jonathan doing a back flip on the trampoline. See, I told you he was excited!

Kylie and Keri running their little hearts out towards the vault.

The foam pit was the best "attraction" by far.

Ava running from across the room and jumping into the pit.

Kylie's turn.

We got to see Ava do some of her skills on the balance beam. She did quite well! Jonathan was shocked and I told him she better be learning something since we pay for this every month. :)

My girls getting into the chalk. Did anyone else even look at it? No. At times you'd think I was raising boys.

Juliet and A'lyn on the trampoline.

Juliet hanging from a high bar. She wasn't too thrilled, but she hung on tight!

More of daddys antics on the high bar.

After the kids had an hour of playing, it was time for cake, ice cream and presents. I went the, well not cheaper, rather quicker cake route. Kylie wanted a Care Bears theme so I went to Publix and ordered a cake. It wasn't nearly as cute as the brochure, but Kylie liked it. I've always made the girls' cakes, but with this move, we didn't have time nor was my house in any state for baking. I wanted to do ice cream and Candace suggested I do ice cream cups and boy was that easy! Thanks for the hot tip!

Ava and Maya

Sisters Carolyn and Isabella.

Keri-a fellow home schooled little girl.

Juliet and A'lyn. These 2 are so cute together.

Of course its hard to get 2 year olds to look at the camera at the same time.

Leah (also home schooled) and Devon. He was about as excited as Jonathan to be showing off his mad gymnastics skillz!

Addie and Camryn. Camryn is known for her "special" camera faces. I gave her plenty of opportunities to smile and this is what she gave me. :)

Jonathan and I got Kylie a new 20 inch bike for her birthday this year. She wasn't very excited in front of everyone when we gave it to her (she also clammed up when we all sang "happy birthday") but she does love it.

Here's a quick video. You can see at the end she runs over Jonathan's foot.