John and Carol Show: LILY'S GOLDEN BIRTHDAY

Our sweet Lily turned nine on the ninth, which obviously called for her "Golden" birthday party. Truthfully, she wanted a very small party, which she reiterated over and over again. My sweet little introvert with an over-the-top mother who needs to be reined in. But, it felt good to go small, and since the Science Fair took over our life, and Christmas is barely over, going small was about the only thing possible.

The show-stopping piece of this party was the giant gold sequin backdrop. Special thanks to Main Street Studios for helping a sister out and to Mom and Wes for being couriers both to and from NW AR. I loved having this backdrop at Mom's 60th, and it was fun to use again for a different party.

We sent out golden invitations to a small group of friends and family.

Once the girls arrived, we served dinner at the table. Lily dictated the menu of CFA nuggets, cinnamon rolls, pineapples, golden apples, a golden juice concoction, and chips. Dinner of champions over here. 👊🏻 This was chased with puppy chow and donuts, obviously, cause it was a party.

After dinner, there was a scavenger hunt around our neighborhood that included rhyming clues ultimately leading them to collect several golden treasures along the way. John and I drove them around the neighborhood, and it was so squealy and SO fun. They really got excited to "Ding Dong Ditch" someone's house (she was in the car and thought it would be hysterical to do to her parents and sister, and I texted to give them a heads up), but you would have thought this was the most exciting thing that had every happened to any of them. 😂

(lost that "Y" at some point in the evening. I love golden birthdas. 🤷🏻‍♀️)

(Such a sweet group of girls and SO much fun to have them celebrating with us!)

Once the girls had solved all the clues and rung the doorbell two separate times and collected all their treasure, they headed back to the house for their final prize, which was their personalized take-home cookie favor. I really tried to not overcomplicate this.

Next on the agenda was cake! Lily had made a very specific request - she wanted brownies with m'ms layered with ice cream. This thing was SO very rich that most people could only handle a couple of bites at a time. And, I don't think I will ever do another ice cream cake. Or a cake that is actually brownies, but we all live and learn, and it did taste good.

Lily had really wanted a sleepover, but I vetoed that and opted to just do a later movie night. This was a good call, and we rounded out the night with Cinderella and popcorn.

Special thanks to John (ALWAYS), for helping and being supportive of parties of all levels. And MVP to Mom and Wes for coming from Kansas with the blingy back drop and helping make party dreams come true. We loved having them for the weekend!