thea's ice cream birthday party

Leading up to Thea's birthday party, my mom was worried because we weren't 'doing' as much as we had for previous parties.  We didn't craft a lot of decorations or special favors.  There weren't any extensive backdrops made.  I kept it simple because I just didn't have the energy to come up with anything too complicated.  Also I originally planned to have the party at our house, just having the kids play in the backyard.  But the weeks prior the weather was miserably hot and I couldn't imagine asking everyone to hang out back there.  So we switched to a swimming party at my parent's house.  Naturally I think the high ended up being maybe 82?  It was beautiful in the shade.

Still, I'm glad we made the switch, and the laid back party was perfect, everyone seemed happy, I wasn't stressed, Thea gasped at every decoration and every present and ate plenty of ice cream and overall just had a great time.

We had the party at 3:30pm.  To eat there was an ice cream bar, a cake made by one friend Jennifer, and cookies made by my other friend Jennifer!  Those girls definitely know how to make adorable (and delicious) sweets.  We also had some cheddar squares and chex mix.  The pink bowls for toppings came from Hyvee, the jars for the syrups from the dollar store, and pretty much everything else we already had or I got on Amazon.

My parent's pool is wonderful for swimming with smaller kiddos.  The shallow end is more of a deck, maybe only 18 inches or so deep?  And the deep end doesn't even quite reach 6 feet.  It makes it much easier to keep track of little ones, and allows the adults to relax a little bit.  :)

I've already got my eyes set on a mermaid pool party for next summer.  Hopefully the little miss doesn't develop any strong opinions before then.  Wishful thinking I'm sure!!  Haha.