Ava's 5th Birthday

We just celebrated Ava's 5th birthday.  Sigh.  Five years.  How did that happen so quickly?!  Each year, I like to decide on a theme for her party, find a large space to hold the party that is a blank canvas for me, and then craft away on different things to make her party unique.  We've transformed a golf course clubhouse into Sesame Street and an entire gymnastics facility into a carnival.  It's always a lot of work but a lot of fun.  I usually start planning for Ava's party about four months in advance.  This past summer, we read a lot of Fancy Nancy books and I was toying with the idea of a Fancy Nancy/Spa party.  Then when we asked Ava what she wanted to do for her birthday this year, she told us she wanted a moon bounce and slide like the one we rented last year.  Hmmm, that didn't quite fit with my Fancy Nancy theme.  But what kind of mom does not let her almost five year old have what she wants for her party?  Not this mom.  That is how Kevin and I ended up at Pump It Up in January to set up her party.  Ava's idea of a great inflatable is one with a giant slide--the bigger, the better.  So Kevin and I toured both party rooms and chose the one with the largest slide.  Then we were given the paperwork that states that you may not hang anything from the walls or ceiling, we would only have a short amount of time to set up the party room, etc.  Ugh!  There went all my control and creativity right out the window.  So I just decided that this was what Ava wanted and I would just sit back and enjoy a laid back birthday party this year.  The only area I could really personalize was the cake table so I whipped up some stuff for it to fit in with our theme for this year--hot pink and zebra print.  I found some pictures of cakes online and let Ava pick her favorite.  Then I printed out the picture and took it to Miss Muff'n Bakery in Germantown and had them replicate it.  

Once Ava picked out the cake, I headed over to my trusty Hobby Lobby to see what else I could find.  I got some balloons that I had blown up and bunched to put on either side of the cake table.

I picked up some papier-mache letters and spray painted them hot pink.

I took a canvas and covered it with fabric then made and glued tissue paper flowers in the shape of a five.

Then, I made dozens of sugar cookies, dyed the dough hot pink, rolled them in pink sugar, and placed a Hershey's Hug in the middle of each one.  My mom bagged them up for me and those were favors for the kids.

I set it all up on a black tablecloth along with black silverware wrapped in hot pink napkins with strips of zebra printed scrapbook paper taped around the napkin to hold it all together.  These were things that I could set up very quickly but helped create the theme that Ava chose.

The kids had a blast jumping, sliding, and running around.

Ava also discovered she enjoys air hockey.

We were able to get a group shot with most of the kids.  Some of them were a little difficult to track down or just really did not want to have their picture taken. :)

Then it was time to move into the party room for cake and presents.  Ava blew out her five candles while we sang to her.

The kids chose either chocolate or yellow cake and chowed down.

Finally, it was present time.  A moment Kevin and I had been waiting on for two looong months.

See that big black and white box on the left side of the table?  That was our present for her.  Back in early January, Kevin and I were watching TV late one night after Ava went to bed.  Normally, we DVR everything and fast forward through the commercials.  However, this night we happened to be watching live TV and a commercial for Disney World came on.  I had never been to DW and Kevin had been once when he was eight.  That commercial did exactly what those ad execs wanted it to.  It made me want to take my kid to Disney World.  I looked at Kevin and said, "Wouldn't it be fun to take Ava to Disney World?" to which he replied, "Yeah, that would be great."  Then I sat there and thought some more.  "Kevin, I was just thinking...".  He answered as he always does when I begin a sentence this way since he knows this means I'm about to lay one of my elaborate master plans on him--"Uh-oh."  "I was thinking that it would be fun to surprise Ava with a vacation to DW for her birthday!"  Kevin said, "That would be really fun.  If you can pull it off in two months, go for it."  WooHoo!   So I went into mega planning mode immediately.  First, I called my mom to see if she wanted to go with us.  Mom went with the three of us on our beach vacation last summer and we had a blast so we thought it would be great if she could join us again.  She, of course, said yes, she would LOVE to go.  So that was settled.  Then I got in touch with Becky, who I found through Facebook months ago.  She is a Disney vacation planner and I knew I had to have someone help me to set all of this up since I had zero knowledge of how Disney worked.  She was amazing!  She gave us info on all the different resorts on Disney property and helped us reserve a room for the week of Ava's birthday.  She gave me her picks for favorite restaurants at each park and made all of our dining reservations for us once we had decided where we wanted to eat.  She set up an appointment for Ava at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and answered countless questions.  Without her, there is no way I could have put together the amazing trip that we ended up taking in two months.  There are so many little details and it really helps to have an expert walk you through everything.  Kevin booked our flight.  All I had to take care of myself was reserving a stroller for the week.  Now that all of this was coming together so nicely, we had to decide how to tell Ava about the trip.  We decided to surprise her with the news at her party which took place on a Saturday.  We would be flying out on Sunday.  This way, it would really feel like a birthday surprise to her and also we didn't have to hear "Mom, Dad, how many more days until we leave?" a million times over the next two months.  It was so hard to keep the news from her because I was SO excited myself.  In the middle of January, I decided to help Ava make a birthday countdown chain to hang on her bedroom door.  I told Ava we would use it to count down to her birthday party but really I wanted it to help me count down to the surprise.  

I enlisted the help of our friend, Doug, to locate a very large box.  He was able to get me one from work and drop it off (thanks again, Uncle Doug!).  We hid it upstairs until the big day.  I ordered Ava the cutest monogrammed Mickey shirt and an adorable hot pink and zebra print Minnie Mouse pillowcase dress from Etsy.  I also ordered t-shirts, nightgowns, water bottles, an autograph book, a tote bag, and a Princess Belle (Ava's favorite princess) costume with headband tiara from the Disney store.  All of these things went into hiding along with the big box.  On the day of her party, I placed all the items in the bottom of the box and filled the top of the box with helium balloons.  Then we just had to wait until party time.  On a side note, Ava has gotten very into writing sentences and often asks us to help her spell words as she writes them.  The morning of her party, she was writing in one of her notebooks and out of the blue said, "Daddy, can you help me spell "I want to go to Disney World"?  He got a big kick out of that.

We read all of the sweet birthday cards from her friends and family.

Then, Ava opened all her gifts.

Her friends sat right in front of her birthday "throne" and kept asking her to show them all of her new stuff.  It was so cute!

"Uncle" Doug and "Aunt" Stephanie have started a tradition of giving Ava a pair of sunglasses for her birthday since Ava is the sunglass queen.

Most of our family and friends knew about the surprise that was coming so many of the gifts were Disney themed although Ava still had no clue what was in store for her.  Doug and Stephanie also gave her a little Dooney & Bourke Disney wristlet bag for her to put her birthday money in to spend on the trip. 

I have to say that Ava is truly blessed to have so many friends and family that love her.  She got the sweetest, most thoughtful gifts from everyone (big thanks again to everyone who was there!).  Just the fact that they were there celebrating with her was the biggest gift of all and I really feel that although she is only five, she would agree.  All she really wanted was for her friends to come play with her and I think she would have been happy with just that.  Now it was time for our big surprise!  We had no idea how she would react.  I know that when I was little I hated attention and surprises, so this was a gamble on our part.  I handed her the big box and we had to set it on the floor in front of the "throne" because of its size.  I made the first mistake at this point.  Kevin had been taking pics with our camera and I had him switch to video but in the chaos I neglected to give our camera to someone else to take pictures.  My mom took a few on her cell phone and that is all we have. 

So, I helped Ava open up the box and as soon as the balloons floated out, the kids went nuts!!  

I can best describe it as a "kid riot".  All the kids crowded around the box with lots of "ooohs' and "aaahs" and began helping Ava by flinging Disney stuff out of the box. At this point, I'm trying to say, "Ava, we're going to Disney World!!!" but she couldn't hear me over all the excitement.  We even had one little friend lean so far into the box, she fell in and Kevin had to haul her out!  Here is Ava as Doug came into the room carrying big Mickey and Minnie Mouse balloons for her.

Kevin gave up on the video because he wasn't really able to get a clear shot of the action.  Poor Ava was so confused and overwhelmed and still had no idea what was going on.  I gave my mom and Kevin presents to unwrap as well.  I had gotten us all Mickey shirts to wear while we were down there as a surprise.  Mom came over to Ava to show Ava her new shirt and to tell her that she was going with us.  Ava just looked at her blankly and then smiled.  Our time in the party room was up and the party was winding down.  We said good-bye to all the guests and handed out the cookie favors.  After mostly everyone was gone, Ava came over to me with this puzzled look on her face and said, "Mom, are we really going to Disney World?"  I said, "Yes, we are and we leave tomorrow!!!"  She was still very unsure of what just happened and then mentioned that she didn't want to go and got emotional (she 

comes by that very honestly from me).  I sat with her for a minute now that things had quieted down and explained to her what we would be doing.  After that, she decided that she was very excited after all. :)  So, this was the second mistake I made.  Next time, we will not surprise her in front of a bunch of people.  The reaction as a whole was great, but next time we will do something low-key at home.  Once we got home from the party and got the suitcases out, we had a very excited child on our hands and we were glad we had decided to wait until the day before to tell her. :)  She tried on her Belle dress and helped me pick out the clothes she wanted to pack.  Then she packed her suitcase all by herself.  She is getting so big.  We put her suitcase and carry-on along with Katie the Koala (her class mascot that her teachers so graciously allowed us to take with us to DW) by the front door so it was ready to go and then set to work trying to get a very excited Ava to go to sleep.

Fortunately, the party and all the excitement had worn her out and she went to sleep pretty easily.  It was such an amazing day full of great memories that I will cherish.  I can't believe our baby is five but we can't wait to surprise her with another trip to Disney World!  Disney blogs to follow!!!