The Big 10 year old Birthday!

This year we sorta made a big deal of our daughter’s birthday. First of all, she was turning TEN, hitting the double digits big time! Second of all, because her birthday is in the winter time it’s hard to plan parties so many years we haven’t really done much of anything for her birthday, other than maybe going out for dinner. So this year we decided to give her a nice party with her friends AND also grant one of her wishes. For a long time she’s been asking to go on an overnight at a local casino nearby. I know that sounds SO funny for a kid to ask for – and NO we are not a gambling family – but the casino near us has a beautiful hotel, a huge indoor pool, a shopping mall, lots of restaurants and it’s actually a pretty cool place {if you negate the gambling part!} Anyway, she’s been wanting to stay at the hotel for a while now and we decided this birthday was a good time to do it. But first, here are the details on her friend party:

 

 

I’m always on the look-out for cute but inexpensive party favors – I got these Scentos markers at Micheal’s for just a dollar each. For some reason little girls seem to LOVE scented pencils, pens, markers, erasers, etc.

 

Because she’s really into One Direction I got these plastic cups with each of the boys from One D on them – also just a dollar each.

Then I made some Chex Muddy Buddies with some added sprinkles and M&M’s and put it all in these cute little bags. And for the most part, that was it – simple, inexpensive favors.

My girls love when I make their cakes and even though I’m nowhere near a professional I always have fun trying to create what they want. She wanted a turquoise layered cake with some sort of zebra print on it. THANKFULLY Wilton makes these things called ‘Sugar Sheets’ which is how it got the zebra look. You simply cut the sugar sheets how you want and apply it on the cake. I also tried a recipe from Pinterest for Marshmallow Fondant and it turned out GREAT! It was easier {and tastier} than I expected.

 

This was during pizza time – there were 3 other girls who came a bit late. I was SO thankful for the two Grandmas being there to help me with everything!

It’s a long story how this happened, but even though we hadn’t planned it the girls got to watch a Native American maple syrup demonstration. They happened to be doing it the day we were using this community center so we went to check it out. The girls thought it was neat and got to each have a maple sugar candy to try out.

 

They played a bunch of silly games … the one called Bus Stop Musical Chairs was a HIT! Who knew even older girls would love such a classic game!

She blew out the candles and we had cake and ice cream…

Then she opened gifts and it was time for the girls to be picked up. I always love taking a picture with the birthday girl and each of her guests, it’s a cute thing that you can include when you send out a thank you note. {this is her sister, but still her friend!}

 

Now the second part of her birthday was our night at the casino/hotel. I will say hotel from now on because honestly we never even stepped foot on the casino floor!

We had a room on the 29th floor! It was such an incredible view from up there! We got all checked in and spent a little time relaxing in the room [I enjoyed a lovely Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks}.

 

LOVE this girl!

 

Since our room faced the west we saw the GORGEOUS sunset that night. It was such an incredible view of the sky from way up there.

Then we changed into swimsuits and went down the the huge indoor pool. The water felt so chilly to me so my hubby and I spent our time in the hot tub and/or just relaxing on lounge chairs. The girls enjoyed the pool for quite a while though.

 

Then we went back up to our room, showered and changed and got all ready for dinner.

The birthday girl chose Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville for dinner. It has such a fun atmosphere, there are full size boats and huge palm trees in the restaurant – for a short time it made us feel that we were somewhere tropical and warm instead of New England in the middle of snowy February! The other fun thing at Margaritaville is that they have this guy walking around on stilts who is making Balloon shapes and animals. The birthday girl chose a Peace sign for hers …

 

And the older girl got a heart on a long stem.

The birthday girl chose peel and eat shrimp for an appetizer for everyone to share and it was SO good.

 

After dinner we took them to the kid’s arcade for a while, then got some delicious Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for dessert, then headed back to our room to relax. Little Birthday Miss didn’t last too long once her head hit the pillow … I think it was a successful birthday when you see her this worn out!

In the morning we picked up some Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast on the way home … one good thing about the casino and hotel is that they have all sorts of yummy choices for food and treats – one bad thing is that none of it is healthy! Oh well, the birthday girl thoroughly enjoyed all her special treats and choices. She was a very happy girl. =)

 

Happy 10th Baby Girl, we love you SO much!!!