Visit with Omi and Opi

Omi and Opi came to help with Elise's party. (Omi and Opi are the German words for grandparents, Elise loves to point out that only Omi, Opi and she were born in another country.)

We discovered on this visit that Carson is now taller than Omi.

His next goal (after passing up his mom), is to be taller than Opi. I love this picture of father, son and grandson!

Spa Party

Settle in if you intend on reading this entire post. If I don't record the details here, I'm afraid I won't do it anywhere!



For Elise's 8th birthday party, she wanted a Spa party. She actually wanted a Spa Sleepover party but I didn't think my nerves could handle a full night of spa fun ~and~ 8 year old girls. So, we settled on a Spa party with the agreement she could invite each guest over for a sleepover during the summer.

I took on the alter ego of "Fancy Franny" who was going to lead the girls through their spa experience and ensure they had no tension or stress at the end. (BTW, I hate pictures of me but I've realized I have so few pictures of me that I threw this in so my kids don't forget what I looked like!)

The guests were all very interested in what Elise's crazy mom, or "Fancy Franny", had in store for them.

We started with oatmeal masks and cucumbers for their eyes. The girls thought this was downright gross. I'm sure a few questioned if they wanted to continue or go home!

But it did make for some funny pictures! (On a side note, we tried the mask on Carson and he promptly ate it off his face...proof that the boy will eat ANYTHING these days!)

We then handed out these cute mesh drawstring backpacks for them to carry from station to station so they could keep track of their belongings.

We broke the girls into groups and rotated them through the stations. The first was "Fancy Nails" where they got to have their nails painted with sparkly colorful nail polish. (Thanks, Mom!)

They then went to "Soaky Feet" station where they soaked their tired feet and caught up on the latest American Girl news. After soaking, Elise's dad rubbed invigorating lotion on their feet.

They then got to visit a "Glamour Shot" station. They could pick flowers for their hair and pick out some fancy accessories.

This was Elise's group at the Glamour Shot station. I just ADORE her friends!!!

And here is a dolled up guest looking just marvelous!

What party of Elise's would be complete without crafts?!? They next visited a "Fanciful Frames" station where they decorated flip-flop frames.

Which would soon hold the picture from their Glamour Shot. (Thanks, Carol!)

The last, and most popular, station was "Fancy Flips" where they got to design and make their own pair of flip flops.

They had a ball picking out just the right colors and making their designs.

Aren't they colorful and pretty?!? They LOVED this station and wore their flip flops the entire party.

They next headed in for a nourishing feast. Each girl got a strawberry cupcake and a yummy chocolate covered strawberry (thank you, Opi!), along with a fancy glass of sparkly fancy juice.

The girls had a great time of chatting and eating, while feeling pampered.

I learned several parties ago that you need to call in reinforcements when doing these kid parties to save your sanity. So, these lovely girls were my saving grace. They each had a sister who was attending and are Carson's age. They helped with the stations and kept the kids in tow. (Ironically, Carson and his friend stuck around during the girly-girl party....I think it might have more to do with the helpers than his sister and her guests....hmmmm....)

We ended the party with "Pin the Cucumber On Taylor Swift" which the girls enjoyed. We also opened presents using a musical gift idea I found. Each girl starts by holding their gift and sitting in a circle. As the music plays, you pass the gifts to the right. When the music stops, whatever gift the birthday girl was holding was the one she got to open. That worked really well.

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All in all, Elise had a great party! I had lots of folks helping, which made the party go off without a hitch! (Thank you Mom, Dad, Carol, Opi, Omi and Eileen!)

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Now I have 12 months to recover before we do this again.