Ellie chose a panda theme for her birthday party this year. I thought it was kind of random but went with it after she stuck with her idea for a couple months. She loves any and all animals so of course her party would be some sort of animal theme. I was getting a little bored with the panda party ideas I was seeing on Pinterest so we mixed it up with a few pops of color and party hats for everyone, even the pandas. The night before her party Ellie came up with the idea of party hats for everyone actually so we stayed up making them together and I think they turned out super cute. I love that she wanted to have input and helped execute her ideas. Ellie is such a fun girl and we are always excited for any excuse to celebrate her.
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| The giant panda face float was a hit |
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| Place settings before I remembered to add the chopsticks and pandas. |
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| Just waiting for her friends to arrive |
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| This little panda guy is what Ellie calls a sissy. I have no idea how she and her friends came up with that name, but they sell these and other little animals like it in the school PTA store. She is obsessed with them. She spends hours in her room building them little houses and worlds to live in. So it was quite fitting for me to stalk the PTA store and buy them out of all the pandas as they came in stock. |
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| It wasn't quite 70 degrees outside but we heated the pool to 90 so nobody wanted to get out once they got in. Everyone gathered around Ellie in the pool to sing happy birthday there |
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| Ellie and her friend Max. |
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| The panda cookies we made. |
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| Ellie loves her pets so much. I think she really just likes having her party in our backyard so her cat and dog can be there too. |
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| We filled a basket of pandas for each of her friends to take one home. |
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| She's in heaven. |
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| Candy sushi version 2.0. I couldn't find green fruit by the foot to wrap around it this time so I rolled out some fondant instead. |
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| Cute little Patrick and Bruce spent most of their time inside the hot tub in our bathroom. True Florida boys. |
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| Kenny and his friends seemed to dominate the water slide most of the night. |
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| Mom and dad |
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| Ellie's party hat she made herself. |
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| We took one shot with the timer from a chair and called it good. The babies were freezing. |
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| Ellie doesn't like normal kid party food like pizza and chicken fingers so PANDA express was the obvious answer // I love how her cake turned out. It was simple and perfect for the theme. |
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| People were able to paint rocks that we added to our potted palm on the patio later. |
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| Bruce painfully trying to smile while he paints his rock. |
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| Lucia and Ada |
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| Loving her moment to shine |
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| Our nanny Andrea holding Patrick and her mom visiting from Venezuela |
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| The sweetest card from Ellie's friend Alexia // opening gifts. Ellie was super excited about the American girl LEGO set from Andrea. |
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| Sister missionaries! We've been loving having them in our ward. Our entire 9 years here we have always had elders in our ward. |
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| We decorated little take out boxes for Ellie's friends to take extra cookies, gum balls and whatever treats they wanted home. They seemed to love it! Oh and Yara made the brigaderos on the right there. Several of them never made it to the party because I couldn't help myself. So delicious. |
