Four

Kylie celebrated her FOURTH birthday over the weekend.  About a month ago Kylie spotted a Rapunzel cake at the grocery store and has been talking about it ever since.  That inspired me to throw her a "Tangled" themed birthday party.  I got most of my ideas from here if you're interested in the details, but I modified them a little to keep things simple.  Kylie invited some of her closest friends over to join in the fun and she was very excited!

There were a lot of purple and yellow decorations in our house since those are the main colors in the movie.

I made Pascal party blowers (super easy) and decorated plain yellow party hats with stickers.  When the kids arrived, they got to choose their own hat and party blower. 

 The party blowers were definitely a big hit!

 Parents were invited to stay since the party was only an hour and a half.  While we waited for all of the kids to arrive, the parents got to enjoy some munchies.  I'm glad I didn't put a whole lot of effort into the spread because I had WAY too much food!  Some of it was inspired by the movie: blue kool-aid to represent Rapunzel's boat ride to the kingdom, apples (Max), and a frying pan (Eugene).

 Once everyone arrived we started off by playing "pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider." 

 The kids were way too good at that game.  Note to self: use a much larger poster and put it up higher... 
 

Kylie also had her heart set on having a pinata...which had nothing at all to do with the movie.  BUT, I did make a super long braid to hang the pinata from, so that has to count for something!  After about 10 seconds we decided to ditch the blindfold and just let the kids swing.

 Here's a better shot of the braid.

We had a few setbacks with the pinata. 1) It's pretty tough for 4-year-olds to break open.  I totally knew that going into it, but Kylie really wanted a horse pinata. So we just let them take their time. 2) Kylie was excited for her to hit the pinata and nobody else.  There were a few tears shed each time she had to hand over the bat to let someone else have a turn.

 It didn't take long before the kids started their own cheering section.  They all gathered together, held hands, and screamed for the person hitting the pinata.  Sorry for the totally blurry picture, but trust me, it was cute!

 After each child had a turn, we took the pinata down and just let them hit, kick, and stomp on the thing to break it open.  That was so much more fun!

 There we go!!!  There was plenty of candy to go around!

 Immediately following the pinata, Kylie opened her gifts (really fast).

 And here is the cake.  What four-year-old girl wouldn't want that cake???  Someday I might actually make a birthday cake for my kids.

 The moment she had been waiting for...

 Kylie wasn't the only one who loved the cake!  It was definitely a big hit.  Every single one of the kids wanted a piece of cake that had "Rapunzel hair" on it (the swirly yellow frosting).  Eventually all that was left was the center of the cake with the birthday message on it.

 The party was tons of fun but MAN OH MAN was it a lot of work!  Luckily the kids played well together and enjoyed the theme of the party, but our apartment felt just a little too small with that many bodies (SIX four-year-olds, plus parents).

The following day, Sunday, was Kylie's actual birthday.  I woke her up that morning by saying "Happy birthday, Kylie!" and she responded, "Again?"  It was still special because she got to open gifts from her grandparents and even skype with them for the first time :)  She wore her new dress to church that her great-grandma Jefferson got for her.  In primary the kids sang a birthday song to her and she got to pick out a bracelet.

All in all, it was busy, crazy, chaotic... and fun.  I really enjoyed watching Kylie's excitement during all of the festivities over the weekend.  She's such a sweet little girl and we're so blessed to have her in our family.