Mikayla's Orphan Annie Birthday Party

Here it is: The long awaited Annie birthday photos are here! (Ha, ha) I am doing this post for all those random moms out there who have a daughter who wants to have an Annie party. Hopefully when you do a Google search, you will find this post and get some ideas on your party...because it was hard to put it together with nothing out there! Annie is just not that "cool."

1. I started with the invitations. I had ordered a dress off Ebay for $20. I color-copied the photo and burned copies of the CD so the girls could listen to it before the party and have an idea of what kind of party they were going to! I was surprised though how many moms ran out and rented to movie for their daughters before the party...so sweet!

My goodie bags were simple....little tin pails that I put their names on, lockets and sun tattoos. The total cost per goodie bag was about $1.75.

I rented the clubhouse and invited 10 girls (counting my two).

I found the Annie doll and Miss Hannigan on Ebay for about $7 each. They were her birthday presents and then I stuck Annie on the cake. Before the party started, Mikayla shoved Miss Hannigan on the cake too!!!!

I ordered the cake over the phone at Publix and they did a great job. I wanted the colors to be hot pink, red and yellow. (Mikayla wanted the hot pink and a colorful bouquet of balloons for her chair.)

I had red butcher paper on the kids' tables and crayons for the opening activity. I also put gold coins for the mansion.



I had the girls all wear their "rattiest orphanage frock" and they looked so cute! Dave dressed as Punjab (not sure how to spell that). We would have done Daddy Warbucks, but couldn't find a bald wig. He already had the turban from his India trip...hilarious!

After coloring on the tables and dancing around, I sat the kids down and briefly told the story of Annie. Then I gave them all a rag (ripped up pieces of left over fabric I had) and put aprons (that my mom made) on all of them and told them to clean!!!! They danced and dusted to "It's a Hard Knock Life."

We played pin the nose on the sun, and whoever was closest got to give out the horns for the "Sandy Dog Parade."

Look how cute they are! I forgot to play "Miss Hannigan says." That was supposed to come next, but oh well!

The girls all brought their favorite stuffed dog to parade around. I brought a couple extras for anyone who forgot.










Then we did a "rag toss" (really it was balled-up tin foil) into buckets. They had so much fun with this!

It was a great party! We finished with cake, ice cream and presents.

Mikayla was so happy!

Hopefully this will help out anyone else who needs to plan an Annie party!

Mikayla is Five!

Happy Birthday Mikayla Mae!

And here are just a few reasons why I love this sweet little girl:

1. She loves to look "fashion" but has her own distinction of "cute" and "fashion" and has a certain preference each day.

2. She is terrified of sharks and always asks me if there is a shark in the lake, or river, or whatever body of water we are passing.

3. She still mixes up her pronouns. For example, she says, "Him is so mean! Him is not invited to my birthday!"

4. She gives the best hugs and squeezes so tight that she chokes me.

5. She is loyal and always sticks up for her friends.

6. She is a trooper. I forget how young she is compared to the Daisies (she's not supposed to be in the troop) and I still expect the same out of her and forget that she's a lot younger.

7. She's strong! She can go across the monkey bars and is really good at gymnastics. 8. She's shy. She gets SO nervous in front of a lot of people, or even just in a room with a lot of people that she doesn't know.

9. She's funny. She makes everyone laugh. She's always the kid that says the most inappropriate things (about panties or "stinky toots" or whatever) in the class, even though it drives her teacher crazy.

10. She likes to disagree. She tells me she has a bad day, just because in the morning I told her she was going to have a GREAT DAY. She tells me she hates ice cream just because I had mentioned that she loves ice cream! She insists that she's getting tattoos and a belly ring just because I told her how much I hate them.

11. She is really, really good at art.

12. She can play dolls forever by herself. She loves Barbies, PollyPockets, her American Girl doll...whatever.

13. She loves to get dirty. This did not come naturally, but with the big sister she has, she took it on and then took it to a whole new level.

14. She's very independent. She potty trained herself at 20 months and has never let me help her in the bathroom. She dresses herself and gets mad if I try to help her wash her hair.

15. She hates to clean up. She is really good at getting away with it too...like she'll pick up two dolls and then start playing quietly while everyone else cleans.

16. She loves shrimp and can eat more shrimp than I can in one sitting.

17. She's compassionate. She cares deeply about the people she loves.

18. She loves make up and jewelry and to "jam out" in the car.

19. She knows what she likes. It doesn't matter that every other girl in the world is having a Hannah Montana or High School Musical Party...she wants an Annie one!! (more to come later)

20. She loves to hang out at the elementary school and feels very important. She will enter kindergarten knowing every kindergartent teacher there!

I don't know what I would do without my sweet Mikayla. She adds the spice to my life...and a whole lot of sugar too.

Happy Birthday!!!!

Dave R.'s Tag

Okay, Dave R., I'll play (but only because it was very interesting to read yours!!!!)



1. If you were trapped on a desert island who wouldn't you want to be there with? ummm, I better not answer that one.



2. For 100 million dollars would you cut off the first inch of your pinky finger? absolutely



3. Who do you find more attractive yourself or Bill Clinton? me, totally



4. What would you rather clean up poop or puke? poop, with no doubt.



5. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your intellect against your friends? 7.5



6. If you had to choose one food to survive on for the rest of your life and only had the choice between mayonaise, catsup, horsey sause, or fat free Italian dressing what would it be? Fat Free Italian Dressing, but that's gross. Can I choose Diet Coke??? or Dots???



7. If you had a free pass that let you commit any sin without having to pay for it what would you do? Absolutely rob a bank...or maybe stop paying bills for the year.



8. If you had a billion dollars given to you what would be the first thing you would buy? Pay off my house.



9. If the best plastic surgury clinic in the world told you they would fix any part of yourself for free what would you have done? I could use a lot of work, but I would just get Lasik on my eyes (I know, that's not plastic surgery). I just couldn't do anything else and handle the recovery or the possible regrets. I can handle my small chest and large thighs and droopy butt.



10. If you were given a choice to start your freshman year of high school knowing what you know now, having the mentality you have now transporting back into time into the old body you had with your adult brain, would you do it? Ya, I probably would, but I would be worried that it would change the course of my future. It would be fun though.



11. If yes to #10, do you thing you would be a better person reliving your life knowing the consequences, or would you be a worse person having a much more powerful brain? Man, I don't know...I would hope I'd be a better person and make some different choices (especially socially) and then I wouldn't have the same consequences. I've already learned from them by doing it wrong the first time so it would be fun to go back and do it all right or at least better than I did.



If no to #10 why no?



12. Name one person that you would never eat dinner with, even if you were paid 300 dollars to do it? Oprah



13. Have you picked your nose within the last 7 days? Yes (Have you seen the pollen in Georgia? I have to brush it off my car and pick it out of my nose.)



14. How many questions on my tag have you not been 100% honest to? none

So Scary...

My kids have never liked raisins. When Amelia was two years old she would take one look at the box and cry. I thought it was kind of weird that she hated them THAT much. As she got a little older and easier to understand, she kept saying "scary, scary" every time she saw the box. Another year went by and I just never bought them, but whenever both my girls would see a box, they would turn them over so you couldn't see the girl. Finally Amelia explained to me that the girl on the box is SCARY!!!! I guess she somehow passed that fear on to Mikayla because this has gone on now for about five years with both of them. Amelia watches 'Curious George' every morning before school and after it will say "this show was sponsored by Sunmaid raisins" or whatever and she starts to freak out a little. I find it quite comical.

Lessons Learned from Spring Break

• I learned a lot of things during Spring Break. We did so many fun things...too many to post about, but here's what I learned. If you buy expensive toys for your children (Leapsters), they will lose them.
• Don't forget to pray when you do lose things because we found it in the oddest place after eight days...in the back of Aunt Miki's car.
  

When your kids are fist-fighting (literally) get them outside! After a horrible day of fighting, I took the kids on a 2.5 mile hike and we pulled everything together again.

I think my girls learned their posing skills from their dad.

It doesn't matter if I buy my kids cute clothes, they will pair them with other cute things that totally don't match.

It is time to use sunscreen again...they are both very sunburned.

It is really great for Dave to be able to call me in sick to work saying he has to watch the kids, so he can take the day off to hang out with us.

Utah Represent!!!!

I just wanted y'all to know that the Utes were proudly represented at the elementary school on "College Shirt Day." They were easy to pick out in a sea of Georgia Bulldogs and Georgia Tech fans. They weren't afraid though...Go Utes!

And a big thank you to Aunt Chell who sent the shirts (and bracelets and socks!) for Christmas. Our little neighbor wore Mikayla's shirt.