Happy Birthday, Natalie!

If the mess that was left was any indication of the amount of fun that was had, I think it's safe to say that Natalie's seventh birthday party was a success.

But let's back up and begin Natalie's special day from the top.  We tried to capture a before-she-left-for-school picture in her new birthday outfit but Nat's a blinker and couldn't seem to keep her eyes open in spite of the flash.  This was as good as we could get:

Love that toothless smile!

Natalie begged me to come to school for lunch.  She didn't want me to bring McDonald's or anything fun like that, she wanted me to eat the school lunch with her.  It was pizza day.  Her teacher let her invite Emma to come from the classroom next door to eat with us as well.  She wore her birthday crown with pride and passed out fruit roll-ups to her classmates.

She desired a "late night" party.  We don't do sleepovers so this was the next best thing.  We called it a pajama party.  The guests wore their favorite Pjs and stayed until 9:00 p.m. (It was co-ed, too! :))

The invites.  I made blue pajamas for the boys.

Nat put on her pajamas as soon as she got home from school and checked the clock every 10 minutes until 6:00 finally arrived.  

We played a bit of bingo while we waited for all of the guests to arrive.

Then it was pizza time.  With lots of soda, too.

I made a big comfy bed using our hide-a-bed mattress right in the middle of the family room floor.

Then we played a few games.  This is a pajama party version of pin the tail on the donkey.  The kids took turns placing a piece on the bedtime scene.

One team did slightly better than the other...

Then we divided the kids into four teams and they had to race to put the king-size pillow in the pillowcase.  Very funny to watch but some kids thought it was hard work and were done with this game after two rounds. :)

So we opened presents and then posed for a group photo.

The guests: Emma, Lauryn, Kennedy, Makenna, Ava, Kelly, Natalie, Sophie, Hayla, Maddy, Sienna, Carson, Diego, Adam, Lydia and Chloe.

Time for cupcakes.  Make a wish, Natty!

These were the "extra" cupcakes.  The cute pajama party themed cupcakes wouldn't hold the all-important seven candles.

See what I mean?

The kids loved eating everything on top but most of them stopped once they got to the cake.

Now it was time for the main event: watching Alvin and the Chipmunks.

The kids loaded up on candy and popcorn and more soda.

There was a pillow fight of considerable size when the movie ended.

And just in case they hadn't had enough sugar, we sent them home with sugar cereal in a personalized bowl for the next day's breakfast. :)

Oh so much fun!  Worth the mess, every bit of it.

Happy birthday, Natalie!  I couldn't possibly love you more.