So fun fact, I messed up the date on the invitation and only realized it after I sent it to all her friends. This was going to be Briar’s first friends only birthday party. I was aiming for a Saturday but dated the invite for a Friday by mistake. By time I realized it, I was already getting replies from parents that their daughters were going to be there. Since that date didn’t seem to be a problem, I figured instead of causing all the confusion and resending a new invitation, I would just keep the friends party on a Friday. I was not going to have a big family party like we always did in the past, but because our Saturday was free now and the decorations would already be up, I decided to get them all out here for one final bash!
Yup, Briar got two parties!
The day before Briar’s actual birthday my mom took our one year old daughter and our soon to be 6 year old to her house all day and then over night. During that time we were able to flip Briar’s bedroom into a little girl’s dream! I have a blog post with all the details if you would like to see more of Briar’s Room.
The 1:00pm start time was the same for both parties. We did not want to be in charge of lunch, just snacks and cake. For the friend party we had Sea Salt Popcorn, Sour Cream and Onion Chips, and Cheddar Chex Mix set out. We had cups out and the girls would just fill the cups up with everything and parade around the yard munching away. I made her a fancy cake for the friend party and served it with a side of ice cream.
For the family party we had Cheddar Sour Cream Chips, Cajun Spice Chips (very good), and watermelon. We made a small cake for the first party so we used the left over cake batter and another box of confetti cake to make cupcakes. This was fun for Briar because she piped the frosting on herself!
I make her a cake every year. I have the best frosting recipe and usually use the Almond Pillsbury box cake. I am worried they might be discontinuing it! I bought the only two boxes left in our Target store and I couldn’t find more anywhere else at the time. I do not always have a vision for what I want the cake to look like so I usually find ideas for the cake by googling the party theme and “Cake.” We already had the Paw Patrol figures and despite the cake being small Briar wanted every character on top.
No reason for anything but a swimsuit for this birthday girl! She was in the water before her guests even arrived. We did surprise her with a Paw Patrol hat to match her party theme.
Last year we rented a water bounce house and slide. The kids absolutely loved it. They loved it so much that for Christmas my mom gifted all her Grandkids a blow up waterslide. It travels around for the Summer. Part of the Summer at my mom’s house, Part of the Summer at our house, and then some of the time at my sister’s house.
We have a family sized blow up pool. We have been through a couple of these over the years because they get used and abused. This one was gifted to Briar last year. We did have to patch some holes on the side. They are pretty easy to find if they do happen. The kids love this pool just as much as they love the waterslide. You can fit a lot of 6 year olds in this pool!!
For the friend party I found these huge water balloons on Temu. I do not normally purchase from Temu and the reason is it takes 500 years to get through all the spin wheels and pop ups! The kids loved these Balloons and they lasted for awhile. Of course, all water balloons are meant to pop eventually. I will say they took forever to fill up with water and we had to Youtube some ideas on how to get the water inside.
For the family party I found brand new Paw Patrol bubble mitts at Goodwill. They ended up working great and the kids had fun with them. They were easier than actually blowing bubbles for my youngest niece and my one year old.
