And I'm back.
Once again this year we planned a birthday extravangza to celebrate Ebby's birthday with her friends. Why did we have yet another party when she'd already celebrated twice?
Um, because I love planning and creating for parties.
And Ebby loves having parties.
Win, win.
I plan to go into much greater detail on my possibly-to-be-renamed Jen Bowles Design blog in the future, but for now here are the highlights...
The party started at our house where we (eventually) welcomed nine guests.
Excitement was running high.
The girls played games and ate pizza.
Then it was time to rest, all in a row.
{About that, I asked Will to move the chairs off the deck onto the lawn for me. Obviously he isn't yet familiar with the art of arranging furniture to encourage conversation. All in good time.}
Next it was time for me to set up the Dessert Vignette, one of my favorite elements of the party. Of course the thing that really made this display was the beautiful bouquet that Bubbe created.
It's pretty sweet having your own personal florist.
The homemade cupcakes not only looked adorable but tasted delicious. Note to self: 22 cupcakes are not enough for nine active teenage girls.
With full bellies and the arrival of our final guest, it was time to load up the vehicles for the wild ride to our main event venue: IKEA.
Once again we had a scavenger hunt but this year it was bigger, better and... more Swedish! The two teams of girls had more complex clues, searching the showroom floor for items including Ektorps and Expedits, red kitchen cabinets and a wild strawberry name Torva.
Meanwhile Bubbe and I sat in the IKEA cafe, chatting it up.
And once again, it was a very close contest. So close in fact we had to create a tie-breaker. In a battle of improv skits, Ebby's team emerged victorious. Fair and square. There were IKEA purchased prizes for all of course.
Next time I create a scavenger hunt, remind me to institute tougher, more definitive scoring.
Upon arriving home it was time to open gifts and set up for the sleepover and movie portion of the party. Thank goodness for our finished basement.
Apparently running zig zagging around IKEA really works up quite an appetite. Which is why I found myself whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies just before midnight. Teenage girls cannot watch a movie with just fresh popped popcorn to eat. Sheesh.
In the morning we served a somewhat surprising and sweet breakfast: a Sunday Sundae Bar. No wonder Ebby's friends seem to like me ;-).
After a few post-breakfast board games it was time for me to take a nap the guests to head home--and start plotting their scavenging strategies for next year!
