Taya's Birthday Dinner & Family Party

On Sunday afternoon, Auntie Marc came up to spend the day with us.  We unwrapped presents & had a little birthday dinner for Taya.  It was really nice to be together as a family.

My friend Nancy who loves to spoil my kids sent Taya a ton of clothes, shoes, & some fun Tsum Tsum things including an Alice Tsum Tsum pillow.

For her birthday dinner Taya chose her 3 favorite foods: 

Spaghetti & Meatballs, Cheesy Potatoes, & Grapes

None of those 3 things really go together, but oh well.  She loved it.

After dinner we opened presents from the family/grandparents/etc.

Grandma K. gave her $10.

The boys got her a Mickey talking Tsum Tsum

Opa & Oma got her a Disgust Infinity character & a Frozen lego set.

Auntie Marc gave her a little handheld video game thing & some money in her college account.  Her sister, Auntie Char also sent some money for Taya's college fund.

Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin sent a Jasmine lego set.

Cadence spent her babysitting money on a bead set for Taya since Taya loves to make necklaces.

And Lorien spent her own money on a Tinkerbell Infinity character for Taya.

Mamoo bought Taya the most beautiful barbie from Disney Descendants.

And Mimi & Baba got her some coloring books & markers.

Trek & I told her for her present from us, that next weekend we'd take her to go pick out a new bike.  Taya has been riding the same bike for 4 years now (picture a training wheel size bike on a 9 year old. . . yeah, it was about time).  She is SO excited to finally get a bike that fits her.

She was also excited to go to school on Monday wearing her new clothes & use her new backpack from Nancy.  It was a great birthday. 

Happy Birthday Taya.

Taya's Birthday Breakfast

Sunday morning was Taya's actual birthday.  For her birthday breakfast she wanted chocolate chip muffins, bacon, & the birthday ding dong.  

(I know. . . super healthy right?)  ha ha ha

She woke up SO excited for her special day.

9 years old.  I can't believe she's already 9.  Happy Birthday sweet girl.

Taya's 9th Birthday Party - Tsum Tsum

So Taya (& my other two girls) are completely obsessed with these little characters called Tsum-Tsums.  They are Disney characters, but they're shaped in little ovals/circles with very minimal details.  They usually just have eyes & a nose & maybe eyebrows. . . but you can still tell who they are & for some reason, they're adorable.

She's been wanting this Tsum Tsum birthday party for almost 6 months now so it was fun taking the time to put it all together for her. 

She wanted cupcakes, but wanted each cupcake to be a different character.  I ended up making 33 cupcakes & did 3 of 11 different characters.  They definitely weren't my best cupcakes ever, but they were still cute enough for her to love them.  This last week has been insanely busy with school things so I'm amazed I was able to make cupcakes at all, let alone cute ones.

Taya was thrilled with them & that made all the hard work worth it.  I love to see my kids smile.

I can't believe Taya is already 9 years old.  Time passes way too quickly these days.  I just want them to stay little forever.  But here we are.  She has become such a beautiful sweet little ray of sunshine to all those she is around.  We love her so much.

The girls helped decorate the table with their own Tsum Tsum collection.

When the party guests arrived we started out by playing a game where we taped a picture of a Tsum Tusm on their backs & they had to ask yes or no questions & try to guess which Tsum Tsum was on their back.  They did a really good job too.  All 10 girls had guessed their person within 10 minutes.

The 2nd game we played was "Create A Tsum Tsum."  I made big black ovals on paper & told them to create themselves as a Tsum Tsum in the top circle, & then draw their favorite Tsum Tsum in the bottom oval.  They spent FOREVER, drawing.  I forget that this age loves arts & crafts.  It was fun seeing their creations.

Taya's own Tsum Tsum was adorable & looked just like her.

Bladen drew himself & then drew Darth Maul as well.  He was pretty proud of his Tsum Tsums.

After the drawing was done, we play a white elephant game.  I found $2 Tsum Tsum's on sale at the Disney Store a few weeks back so I bought 10 of them to use as party favors.  I wrapped each one up & each girl took one.  We read a story about the "Wright Family Vacation" where the kids had to pass their gift to the left or the right every time I said the word "left" or "right."  They thought it was pretty funny.

Then we played a typical white elephant game where the first person unwrapped their gift.  The 2nd person could steal the first gift, trade for the leftover gift in the middle, or open the gift in their hand.   This went on for all the girls.  There was lots of stealing & lots of unwrapping.  In the end, they all traded each other for the Tsum Tsum they really wanted.  Everyone went home happy.

Cake & Ice Cream is always a favorite part of birthday parties.  Taya's Roz cupcake looked like it was on fire with all those candles.

Taya has such wonderful friends here.  They gave her the cutest little gifts.

After gifts, the girls played "Spoons" with each other until their parents arrived.  The plan was to play with their Tsum Tsums instead of spoons, but nobody wanted to part with their precious new toy (& nobody wanted anyone else to touch their new toys).  ha ha ha.  They had fun.

It was a great party & the girls had a blast.

Happy Birthday Taya!