Moana Birthday Party

Olive's friend, Posey, has a birthday two weeks before her. So Camilla suggested we throw them a joint party! Lucky Olive... I don't think I would have taken the initiative to throw her one otherwise. Moana is the flavor of the month right now so it was all luau decorations and hula skirts over here! We invited all the girls in their primary class plus Olive's two cousins, Lindi and Livvy. It was going to be on the 19th, but that ended up being Joshua's funeral so we bumped it a week later, to Olive's actual birthday!

Donuts and presents from the family to start her special day! She got a Trolls microphone, a Sophia the First guitar, a Moana dress and a custom puzzle with her name. 

Good heavens, she looked adorable!! 

I needed a crimper for true, Moana hair, but these curls were pretty close. 

From left to right,

Sarah Manning, Lindi Goodman, Olive, Posey, Olivia Evans, Elise Rigby, Macey Shaw, Layla Neely, Ruby Hanks and Piper Warner.

We got them all dressed up and after about 5 minutes they decided it was too itchy and it all came off!

We had a gathering game... Pin the Tail on HeiHei, that they had short lived interest in.... then they were off to the toy room. 

This age.

You can plan all the games you want, but all they really want to do is play in the toy room.

Somehow we corralled them into the kitchen for a Hula dancing lesson! I had put together a little routine, but it turned out to be a trickier than I thought to teach them all. Let alone fitting them all in the kitchen. So basically, I just put on Moana music and had them copy me as I did some moves. 

They were the cutest little hula dancers you ever did see! They all had their eyes on me, trying their best to mimic the moves. I about died the next day when Piper's mom text me saying that her daughter asked her if she knew how to "stir her butt". 

Bahahaha.

I may have used the very technical, yet not often heard term, "stir your bum" when trying to get the girls to understand how to move their hips in a circle. Who knew they were listening?!! Haha.

They all just couldn't WAIT to do cake and presents.

We had Moana cake, "ocean water" punch, fishy crackers, fruit kabobs and "ocean" pudding cups!

We ended with swimming in the tiniest pool ever, jumping on the trampoline and taking turns riding the old school "roller coaster" that I borrowed from my mom. 

It. was. maddness. 

There was laughing, crying, fighting, running, owies that needed band-aids, bums that needed wiping, juice cups refilled, towels shared, reminders of what it means to take a turn and only two instances of sorrys needing to be said. 

By 5pm, I was pooped.

Olive, darling, I love you THIS much.

 She chose macaroni and cheese for her special dinner. 

Done.

Here's what I wrote about her on Instagram...

"I truly can't gush about my little girl enough. She is a treat. My happy and compliant companion, everywhere we go. She loves to prance, sing, wear dress-ups and say things like "Oh. My. Gosh!" with hands next to face and voice in high pitches (think valley girl). Or, "Mom. That is BEAUTIFUL!!" She wants to wear my lipstick, play Barbies and scold and hug her dollies. When she sneezes she says, "Mom, I just 'bless you'd' and calls string cheese, ching cheese. She is best friends with Posey, who she shared a Moana party with today! I love her innocence, her ability to see beauty everywhere and her genuine, happy go-lucky personality. We are so blessed to have Olivita in our family!"

I can't say it enough. Raising a girl really is SO different than raising a boy. She is all pink. All of the time. In every way you can imagine. She's all about relationships and playing pretend with her friends. She'll shrug one shoulder back, flip her hair, bat an eye and use a saucy voice when saying something ordinary. A good example of this was after I had shared a chocolate shake with her and with as much emotion in her voice as she could muster she exclaimed, "That was just the yummiest thing EVER! Thank you, Mama!"

She puts her dolls in the shopping cart and tells me she's going to Costco. When you ask her what her dolls name is she'll say something like, "Choochee" or another weird, made up combination of sounds. She is terrified of boys. This all started with an "scary" experience involving some neighbor boys on the Goodman's street and has now multiplied to all boys and men. Anytime we're going somewhere new she wants to know if there will be boys there. But she always clarifies, "But I'm not afraid of MY boys, Mom." (Collin and Weston) Her favorite book is Pinkalicious. She used to love swim lessons, now she hates them. We're going on two months of massive tears every time we even hint that it's time for swim. She is a walking musical. She leaps, sways and spins while singing whatever words pop into her brain, 60% of the day. She goes to preschool 3 days a week now and loves it. She's in a ballet/tumble/tap class but probably loves making faces in the mirror and acting sassy more than following the teacher. She gets her hair done every day but still complains. Every. day. 

We have gotten in the habit of laying down with her at bedtime until she falls asleep so now it's a must. And she prefers me over Dad for this. She sleeps with her silky, pink blankie that she's had since a baby, but only gets it at bedtime. 

She still sucks her thumb, gosh darn it. 

We showed up to my parent's house for Sunday dinner and Marcie had baked her this adorable, two layered, pink, sparkly cake. Complete on a glass platter with fun candles. Wow! Aunt Marcie takes better care of my children than I do. It was such a sweet, unexpected surprise. 

In case, you were unaware, we love you, Olive Ann!! You are the sweet, dainty, pink princess in our family's fairy tale.