On making birthdays special when life is crazy

I am excited to share this post, no only because yesterday was so lovely, but because I think I've hit on some ways to make sure a birthday is special, even when life surrounding it is crazy. Even though we have movers coming in a few days, I set yesterday aside to enjoy Kelby and make sure he felt loved and had a great birthday. And he did :)

Instead of attempting a party here at our house, I decided we'd have a little play-group party at the park in our neighborhood at 10:30 yesterday. This way, the kids could play, but I wasn't in charge of cleaning (before or after) or feeding everyone. Each mom brought snacks or lunch for her own family . I ordered cake pops from my talented friend Melissa and brought Capri Suns to share.

Melissa also made just one cupcake so he could blow out a candle :) Cake pops are an awesome idea for kids' parties--the portions are automatically small, they don't require plates and forks and they're no-mess (for most kids, ha!)

 Since we were not looking to acquire a lot of new toys right before a move, I asked the moms, instead of bringing a gift, to just give him a dollar or two in a card. That way, he'd have enough to pick out a Lego set for himself. This idea came from another mom friend a couple years ago. Kelby has some really generous friends because no one stuck to the "dollar or two" suggestion and he ended up with enough money to pick out two Lego sets at Target after his party! And the moms all seemed happy not to have had to shop for a gift.

 I love this pic of Natalie and Kelby. Aw.

 For party favors, we made green slime, which I pinned a long time ago from this site. It turned out so awesome!!!!! You should try it because it was super fun. We quadrupled the recipe to make enough for 12 little containers.

After spending a few hours at home enjoying the new Legos, we had a little family get together at McAlister's Deli. It was the perfect end to his day :)

I made these Paleo Samoa cupcakes and they were a huge hit. I've made them once before and the caramel sauce makes enough for two batches, so this time they were faster.

More Legos. Just the ones he wanted :)

Kelby and Granny

He even got to Skype with Papa in Mongolia while we were there :)

Happy Birthday, Kelby!!! Now, no more growing up! Okay?? ;)