An Animal Tea Party Birthday!

I can hardly believe my little girl is turning 4 tomorrow.  Seriously, she can't be that old already!  I know it's cliche to say, but the time seriously goes way to fast when you have little ones.

Over the weekend, Liliana had her first "friend birthday party."  She was insistent that she wanted a cow tea party.  I was able to convince her to have an animal tea party because I figured not all of her friends would have a cow stuffed animal like her.  She invited several of her girlfriends to her animal tea party and asked each of them to bring their favorite stuffed animal to the party. 

 We set up the animal tea party on the floor.  Apparently Nickel wanted to join in on the fun.  :)

 Before all of her friends came, I wanted to get a cute picture of her in her "tea party" dress, as she calls it.  Unfortunately, she wasn't in the mood to smile nice.  Matt and I call this her granny face. Ha!

 Here she is with her beloved cow.... still trying to get one decent picture....

 

Finally!  Our sweet birthday girl and her favorite cow stuffed animal.

 

And... back to goofy.  Seriously, this girl is one of the goofiest kids I've ever met.  Love her.

 

 Liliana has quite the sense of humor and really does know when she is funny.  She likes to go on and on and one with whatever her latest joke is.  This face is one of her funny jokes that we see a lot of recently.

 

 Everything was ready for the party a little too early.  Liliana kept asking when her friends were going to come.  She entertained herself by spinning around in her tea party dress - a favorite pastime.

 Since her birthday party was a special occasion, she wanted to wear some of her jewelry.  She has been very into jewelry over the past few months.

 We got her the bracelet while we were in Ethiopia.  She keeps telling us that she is going to share it with her baby sister when she gets home. :)

 Okay, back to the tea party.  Once all of her friends arrived, they colored a picture of a cupcake or cake for their stuffed animal to eat at the tea party.  Here are all their stuffies enjoying the tea party.  I especially love the giant dog stuffed animal that our niece Natalie brought!

 After the animal cakes were finished, all the kids headed down stairs to play games while I set up the tea party.  Liliana picked out dark chocolate cake mix and pink vanilla frosting with sprinkles for her cupcakes.  I am pretty sure I should have traded the dark chocolate cake mix for milk chocolate because Liliana was the only one to eat her entire cupcake.  The rest of the girls only ate the frosting.

We also served crackers with jelly or cheese and vegetables.  I was surprised that all the girls took some vegetables (except Liliana, of course).  We all had some "tea" to drink -- pink lemonade.  When I asked one of the girls if she wanted some tea, she asked me what kind it was.  I whispered, "It's just pink lemonade." To which she responded, "Oh good because I don't drink tea." :)

 Here is our party animal playing freeze dance.  We also played musical pillows, which was particularly hilarious because the youngest girl at the party kept almost winning -- even against a 6- and 11-year-old!

 Here are all the girls at the party - and, of course, our Michael.

Top: Vada, Michael, Natalie, Emmie (our helper)

Bottom: Kaylee, Evie, Lexi, and Liliana

 Party time!

 After the games, the girls (and Michael) came upstairs for the tea party.  Everyone enjoyed themselves very much.  After the girls were done, they helped their stuffed animals have their tea party. 

 After the animal tea party, we opened gifts.  Liliana was very excited about her presents.  And she got some very nice things that she loves!  She received a game called "Pop the Pig" which I have played about 20 times in the last two days.  She also got a jewelery making kit, Little Mermaid bath toys, hair bows, and a Zooble.  I had never seen or heard of a Zooble before, but Liliana seems to love it a lot!

Liliana giving a "thank you" kiss to Lexi. :)

Thank you hug for Evie.

Sweet hug to cousin Kaylee

She loves her jewelry kit from Vada!

Another hug for her cousin, Natalie

After we opened gifts, we went back down to the basement to do the pinata.  Liliana and all the girls did a great job.  However, it was a tough pinata.  I ended up hitting it at least 5 times before it finally broke open.  Unfortunately, we learned a lesson about filling a pinata the hard way.  See, I was thinking that no moms would want a bunch more candy right after Halloween. So, we filled the pinata with a bunch of plastic jewelery.  Lesson learned: plastic jewelery + hitting a pinata over and over and over again = broken jewelry when the pinata opens.  Oh well, the girls had fun anyway!

Liliana had an absolute blast at her birthday party.  She loved every moment of it and partied hard for the full two hours.   She was exhausted afterwards, but it was so worth it.  She is already looking forward to her birthday party next year.  She told me she wants to have all the girls come and make their own pizzas for dinner. :)