Birthday Fun!

Birthday week has finally come to a close! Whew... I survived another round of birthday festivities for Elisan. She's my high maintenance birthday child. Probably because her "love language" is Gifts, as in receiving gifts. Of course, I can't fault her for that, because my love language is also Gifts. (Here's the link if you are interested in discovering the love language of your child. If you are curious about your love language, here's the adult love language test version.)

Anyway, as you may recall last year, we had a slumber party for Elisan's 8th birthday. Um, that party about did me in for ever wanting to prepare and plan for another birthday party in my entire life. So, this year, I decided we'd have a more laid back party and just kind of go with the flow.

The party started off at the neighborhood pool and the girls swam for about 1.5 hours. I love August birthdays because it will almost certainly include chlorinated water. Especially nice with temps in the 100's. And since it doesn't rain in Central Texas in August, there's never a reason to worry about rainouts. It's a beautifully executed plan, don't ya think?

After swimming, we loaded them up and brought them back to the house for lunch. Nothing fancy here... just sandwiches, chips, pickles and fruit kabobs. I did however, make a super yummy punch to serve in their Hurricane tumblers, with their fru-fru straws and fancy paper umbrellas.
Once lunch was complete, we served up my birthday party specialty, which is ice cream cake. I'm so glad Elisan loves my ice cream cake because it's super easy and very yummy! Plus, everyone eats it. There's no wasted cupcakes licked clean of the icing and nothing more.

And finally, we opened presents, which is always a lot of fun. We're the kind of family that allows our children to open their presents at the party, and not after everyone goes home. We feel kids like to see the birthday friend open their present and "oooooo" and "ahhhhhh" over the present. Kinda makes everyone feel good! I've never understood the concept of opening presents after the party... And, I've heard all of the reasoning behind it too.

So, that's about it. We're good for another whole year. I'm thinking at 10, we'll just have a small gathering of a few close friends and take them to a restaurant and movie. Yep. Sounds like a winner to me.



Vanilla Fruit Punch
2 2-liters Hawaiian Fruit Punch
1 2-liter Ginger Ale
2 46-oz cans of Pineapple juice
1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream

Mix & Serve.

Ice Cream Cake
I have a step-by-step photo tutorial for this recipe here.