Lizzy's 9th Birthday

Because I'm essentially a lazy person, I had put off thinking about Lizzy's birthday. We do every other birthday with friends and this was a friend birthday. So barely a week and a half before her birthday I started planning. (I need pressure to complete things, sometimes you just have to make your own pressure, right?) Thinking about my creative daughter I decided to throw an art party! Hooray for Amazon 2 day shipping! I decided to try my hand at Tie-dye. Lizzy's very first party she was invited to when she was a baby was to an 8 year old's tie-dye party. We had a blast. So armed with this vague happy memory, I blissfully ordered a tie-dye kit and white shirts and waited for the packages to arrive.
                                        
This kit was awesome! It has instructions and so many colors! It has rubber bands and frankly pathetic gloves and bags. So really all you had to bring were the shirts and the paper towels! Sold! What I didn't count on was that the dye had to set for 6-8hrs. So I may never see the creations the girls made, alas.
  The day came with much anticipation and for once I was ready for it, almost. I had set up two stations and was going to pull a quick change for a third, but that didn't happen. The only bad thing was that I had planned the party for 3 hrs! Yeah... poor planning... the kids had fun, but there were moments of "well, what do we do now?" Luckily Daniel and I are quick thinkers and have a ton of outdoor games! Score!
  This is the only pic I got of the tie-dyeing because we were helping the girls so much.

So the guests all chose an apron to decorate and then got started on the tie-dye. Afterwards there was a place to paint. At first the girls were painting nice pictures, but it quickly dissolved into the biggest mess they could make! 

Emily had the best time! She loved all the color! Next they all played in the yard for a while and Daniel and I cleaned up the tie-dye and put the food out. We were informed that it was the best outdoor party because we had Ruffles! Go us! Later we cut the cake and had a tug-a-war and sack races. We did a pinata, (which burst by the second person, when does that happen? The guests had fun beating the pinata to a pulp.) and then the rain started so we cleaned up and went inside to watch Despicable Me 2. By the end I was exhausted. I think everyone had a good time though!