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Abby and Zack turned FIVE in December. We celebrated in style with a classic birthday BALLOON party. [Image] I wrote the party invitation info on inflated balloons and then let all the air out, tied it to some cardstock and stuck it in the envelopes. It was totally cute but a few of the parents told me that kids opened the invite, played with the balloon and rubbed the marker off so they didn’t know when the party was. I think if I were to do it again this way I would include a real printed paper with the info as a supplement. Still, it was cute… apparently that is the most important thing to me! [Image] Abby and Zack wrote thank you tags for the party favors. I got the printable from my friend Darleen’s blog here. Her little boy was at the party (and she made the robot shirt Zack is wearing below as a party favor for one of her incredible parties!! Click here to see the most hilarious picture of Lila at one of those parties. She is the one with cucumbers on her eyes!) [Image] The tags hung on the balloons that we gave out as party favors. I tied the balloons onto little animals that had their arms wrapped around a ring “POP”. I also sent the kids home with a big punch balloon that we used as part of the decorations in the basement. [Image] You can see the favors in the background below. I decided not to do cupcakes or cake and ice cream but did balloon shaped sugar cookies instead. I used Twizzler pull and peels as the balloon strings. It was a good move and the kids all loved them! [Image] Abby and Zack’s cakes were just little round cakes with a bunch of pull and peels as the strings. [Image] Our decorations were just tons and tons and tons of balloons everywhere. [Image] A little bit of birthday, a little bit of Christmas… [Image] [Image] When the kids showed up they got to pick out a balloon hat from the pile I had made. I became a balloon tying expert and it is actually kind of addictive. We had balloons all over the place and I loved how the strings from the helium balloons hung down in the rooms and looked so festive. This was upstairs in the dining room. You can see a few of the girls with their hats… [Image] …and the basement where most of the action took place. [Image] We played lots of games with the balloons. My favorite was the “freeze dancing” with balloons tied on their hands and feet. I attached rubber bands to lots of different sized balloons. They were all over the floor in the basement as decorations when the kids showed up which added to the excitement. Then I let them pick as many as they wanted to wear for the dancing. The freeze dance song is one of Abby and Zack’s favorites so it was perfect for the party. The song pauses and tells the kids to freeze… it was awesome with all their balloon limbs flying and the kids LOVED it so much they begged for an encore. It was pretty hilarious to watch too! [Image] [Image] A new birthday tradition we started was putting a dollar in balloons and hanging them in their doorways. One balloon for each year old they are. (They are only five… the balloons in the middle were just leftover decorations from the party). [Image] And every year since we’ve had Lila we have had balloons on the floor in the kids rooms when they wake up on their birthday. Johnny’s family used to sneak in and toilet paper your room on your birthday but the balloons are a little easier. Especially if you have a bazillion balloons in your house leftover from a birthday party! [Image] I know it is totally cliché to say this, but I really cannot believe they are five. It seems like only a few days ago that they looked like this… (and there were lots of times I never thought I would say this, but oh how I miss those two sweet little babies!!) (Abby on left, Zack on the right) [Image] Happy (sort of late) birthday to my babies, because you’ll ALWAYS be my babies! [Image]