Here's the Scoop...

 Miss Maddie is 5!

We had an ice cream themed birthday party this year.

I made the invitations from card stock and then used brown paper lunch sacks for the envelopes (loving all of the fun ideas on Pinterest!)

I have so much fun making their birthdays extra special, although I'm not gonna lie, at some point oh usually the week before the party I have a moment of what was I thinking. :) But it is always worth the effort to see it all come together. One of our sweet friends from church laughed and said you can tell Maddie is the oldest because her 4th child is Maddie's age and he is yet to have a birthday party! Its one thing to do this twice a year, not sure if I could pull 4 parties off a year though. Chris often reminds me that every other year I think it is a good idea to have the party at our house, and I am then reminded why its easier to do it somewhere else! So after last year when the thunderstorms cleared 15 minutes before her party in our backyard started, I was happy to oblige when Maddie asked if she could have her party at BounceU. 

One of the many reasons why it is nice to have the party somewhere else - they set all up and clean it all up afterwards!

I was so excited to find all of the ice cream paper products on sale at Party City!

I monogrammed a chair cover from Chasing Firefly  and used it as a sign to hang on the door

 

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes (once again thank you pinterest!)

Ice Cream Cookies for the adults in case they didn't want the oh so delicious funfetti cupcakes!

 

Eliza, Caroline, and the Birthday Girl

Emalyn was little overwhelmed by all the kids and wanted me to hold her for a good part of the party, but at least this year we got a picture of her smiling. She is definitely going to be the more introverted of the two of them!

And let the chaos begin - pizza!

The birthday girl!

The party favors

I found these cute ice cream printables and ordered small ice cream containers for the party favors, however I failed to make sure all the ice cream toys I found on the $1 aisle at target for the boys fit into the ice cream containers before I bought them! So the girls got the cute ice cream container with spoons/ straws tied to them and the boys got white bags.

Maddie's favorite part of the party favors were the bracelets she helped me make (keep her quite busy during her rest time!) with the ice cream cone charms I found on etsy.

At the end of the night with Bebe.

We celebrated her actual birthday at the beach.

One of her major concern about being at the beach on her birthday was still having donuts for breakfast on her birthday.  So Chris went to donut hole that morning, and I even found ice cream cone candles - why wait for the cake? She wanted them in her donut. :) The girlfriend is all about birthdays (she is already talking about next year)!

Oh what a fun year we have had with Miss Maddie - the 4 day 4's at St. Georges, Tuesday afternoon ballet with Caroline Pittman, Disneyworld, the Christmas Paegent, St Georges Soccer, Noah's Ark - and so many more sweet memories! She brings such joy to our home. She has one of the most thoughtful and tender hearts. Her teacher pulled me aside this past year and said she was one of the sweetest, easiest children she had ever had, which of course made my heart smile and reassured me that it has been worth all of the hard work I have put into training this sweet child. She has always liked to talk, but I feel like this year more than ever she is nonstop chatter! Asking every question under the sun! She loves coloring and drawing - we go through more paper than I ever thought was possible. I carried two large trash bags out last week that I had her help me sort through - and she still has 2 containers full of artwork! It has been so fun to watch her this year as she is getting more comfortable writing words and is starting to read and put sounds together. And she has an exciting year ahead of her this year with a new school and new friends!