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Rolling Into Double Digits ~ A Skating Party

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Let me start off by saying, “Second post in as many days.”  It’s a miracle! We have a rainy afternoon and the kids got out early….that translates to perfect blogging conditions.

Last weekend we celebrated Elliott’s 10th birthday. I wanted to combine it with Mother’s Day weekend since my mom would already be in town {her actual birthday is May 29th}. We talked about what kind of party she’d like and since this was a milestone birthday we decided to go big! I suggested going to the roller rink since that’s what I did as a preteen/teen back in the 80s. At first she turned her nose up at the idea, but then seemed to warm up to it. I promised her that it would be FUN! Mind you, she had never roller skated before. She has ice skated several times and was pretty good at that, so I figured she’d catch on to roller skating quickly. I had intended to take her skating before the party, but that never happened. Oops!

I ordered her invites through Merriment Press on Etsy to make things simple…

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These were formatted as 5X7s so they cost a little more to print {I did Target Photo, but had them sent to my home which was a lot less expensive than printing them to the store. If time permits, I suggest doing this!} and the envelopes were harder so source. I went the most economical route by grabbing some small manila envelopes at Dollar Tree and trying to pretty them up….

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She wanted to do a little photo booth so I found these Kate Spade photo props at Home Goods…

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The party was held at Northridge Skateland. We ended up doing a shared party which means that the rink was closed to the public, but there would be 2 other parties going on at the same time as ours. Turns out there was just one other party so that was great and made it less crowded.

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We were allowed 50 skaters for our party and were given wristbands to hand out. Once the guests had their wristband, they were free to get their skate rentals and hit the floor {literally AND figuratively!!}

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The party was from 5-7pm so I wanted to serve “dinner”. I was pleased to find out that you were able to bring in your own food. The only outside food not allowed was pizza. I went ahead and made things simple and ordered pizzas there and brought some snacks and drinks on my own. Elliott wanted to have her favorite, Chex Mix, and I made a couple trays of 7-layer dip for the adults to enjoy. I brought water bottles and 2-liter bottles of soda. They supplied ice which was great.

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The birthday girl requested a Red Velvet Nothing Bundt cake…

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She was afraid that everyone wouldn’t like red velvet so she asked for some mini 2-bite cupcakes, as well…

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After we sang, she went into the birthday blaster and was able to grab little papers with numbers on them to trade for tickets and redeem for prizes.

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Party favors were funky knee high socks that I found at Dollar Tree and 99¢ Only. My mom also made some cute patchwork boxes and I filled them with candy and a little note of thanks…

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{I finished them off with pink and white baker’s twine.  😉 }

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{selfie with the birthday girl}

*****

I was extremely impressed with how the party flowed. I wish we could have had an extra 30 minutes because the crowd was just becoming more graceful on their skates and then all of a sudden it was time to go. LOL But everyone seemed to have a great time and couldn’t wait to go back. Our personal hostess, Christine, was awesome too. She helped set everything up, served the pizza, refilled the tortilla chips, cut the cake, bagged up the gifts and loaded the car with us.

Holden has asked to have HIS 10th birthday party there.

Success.

Many thanks to my friend Courtney and staff for an amazing evening celebrating our sweet Elliott!!

XO

Have You Ever Fed A Sea Lion On Thanksgiving?

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No?

We have….

{Rewind}

We finally uploaded our Thanksgiving Weekend pics to the computer and YES we did feed marine life on Turkey Day.

We took the kiddos on their maiden voyage to Sea World ~ many thanks to Gramma K for treating!

Getting his bearings:

A quick whirl on the Elmo ride:

You’d of thought we were at Disneyland with the permagrin on his face!

Gramma & Elliott bringing up the rear in the zebra Elmo:

“Petting” the manta rays:

Then it was lunchtime {for them not us!}:

Do I have to touch it?

I rolled up my sleeves and got in there:

Then we went to “Blue Horizons” {dolphin show}. I must say that they have stepped this show up and it {almost} has a little Cirque du Soleil feel to it. Costumed acrobats swinging & twirling over the tank. Divers. The whole nine. I was pretty impressed.

{Sorry. No pictures of that part, though.}

We then ventured to see the sharks followed by the sea lions.

This guy {gal?} was quite vocal:

Holden LOVED feeding these guys.

First you hold a mackerel in your hand and bring it up over your head:

…then fling it into the exhibit:

{I was thankful for warm water and antibacterial soap at this point}

We then saw the Holiday Paws show and got to pet the pot belly pig:

Then it was another visit to Santa and then some face time with Shamu.

Elliott really wanted to ice skate.

If you’re going to feed a sea lion on Thanksgiving, why not go ice skating, too?

A tuckered Holdy cuddling with Gramma:

All laced up and ready to roll….I mean skate!

If this isn’t Southern California I don’t know what is….the sun setting over the Pacific, palm tree silhouettes, sea gulls in flight:

Gorgeous!

{This part really made me miss my hometown}

Holden awoke from his power nap and was ready to join in on the rink action:

After the drive to SD and an afternoon at Sea World, we capped off our Thanksgiving with Panda Express!

It was a departure from the norm on Turkey Day, but so welcomed.

My Dad made it into San Diego late that evening and we ended up having our feast and giving our official thanks on Friday evening. We had some family friends {who my parents have known for 50 years!} join us. Holden came down with a low grade fever that afternoon so between giving him doses of Advil, making sure Toy Story 2 was playing, visiting with dear friends and eating, we didn’t get any pics of the spread! But Elliott did help Gramma earlier in the day with the stuffing:

She added plenty of pepper!

Friday afternoon before dinner we also took a drive through Balboa Park. I love driving down the 163 corridor past the zoo…so beautiful. We drove by the organ pavillion and across the bridge and reminisced about our wedding day 6 years ago.

On Saturday we were able to catch up with more old friends. Jay and Elliott went to visit one of the groomsmen in our wedding while I stayed home with Holden and kept his fever at bay. I also ran/walked to the mall near my Mom’s place to fetch our holiday ornaments which you can read about here. It was literally over the bridge and under the freeway to the Westfield mall I go! There is a trail that goes along the lake {Lake Hodges} and under the 15 freeway and puts you right at the mall. So yes, I got this year’s ornaments “on foot”.

Saturday night I met up with my high school besties and we went to a 40th surprise party. It’s so nice to just be able to pick up where you left off so to speak. We met up for a pre-party libation and then their lovely 16-year old daughter drove us to and from the party. It was great to get caught up with old faces and celebrate more folks turning the BIG FOUR-OH!

That was our holiday weekend, friends!

I hope yours was just as sweet.

Happy Friday!