Party Time

Jane's 8th Birthday Party was the event of our weekend!  Saturday afternoon Jane hosted a group of friends for a Pinterest themed party in honor of her YouTube channel.  Hahaha.  ;)  It took lots of coercing and much effort, but I eventually convinced Ethan that he had to help out by filming a music video for Jane and her friends and then an episode of Jane Puts Pinterest to the Test with all her friends helping her make slime.

Saturday morning started out super rocky -- the Tweedles were up early and their tweedling (i.e. laughing and giggling and working themselves up into the ultimate silly, uncooperative, and obnoxious moods) woke Ethan up early on the only day of the week that he would have been able to sleep in.  He was not happy.  And that's an understatement.

By the time the party started that afternoon, though, he rose to the occasion and not only did the filming and editing for the videos but agreed to put up decorations for the party as well.  I don't know what it is about streamers, but he can never pass up a chance to put them up.  Hahaha.

Despite lack of preparation and help on Sophie and Grace's part for the choreography portion of the music video, everything fell into place once the guests arrived, and I was able to throw some moves together on the spot for their cover of "Shake It Off" from the movie Sing.  We banged it out in about 15 minutes in the backyard, and it all came together nicely.

Once we finished up with filming the music video, it was time to move on to the slime making!  Jane and all her friends tried out a new recipe she found on Pinterest, using glue, baking soda, food coloring, and contact solution.  It was a hit!  The girls seemed to have a blast mixing it up, and I know Jane loved having "guests" on her channel.  Hahaha.

Having only blocked out an hour and a half for the party, I was a little worried at first that we would run out of time to get everything done before parents started to arrive.  All the worries were for nothing, however, as we clicked off the Jane Puts Pinterest to the Test episode in record time {and one take}, and then moved on to presents, cake, and ice cream.  Obviously, the perfect theme for the cake this year was "Pinterest," and as such, I created one of the easiest birthday cakes I've made in recent years by fashioning a Pinterest app icon, using chocolate cake, cream cheese frosting, and some store-bought red fondant.  I was pretty pleased with the outcome.  :)

Ethan finished editing the "Shake it Off" video just as everyone was finishing up their cake and ice cream, and the girls were all thrilled to see their pop star debuts before they went home.  Hahaha.  Friend parties are always so much more work than family ones, but it makes everything totally worth it when I see my kids so happy.  And that's a wrap for Jane's 8th Birthday!