I shared a little bit about Ella’s party a few weeks ago, but those pictures were really for me. Other than roller skating, her one wish for this year was a slumber party. Thanks to Sofia the First and her “royal sleepover” that is just about all my girls talk about anymore. I keep trying to explain to Sophie that she isn’t old enough to have friends over, but it isn’t quite sinking in. I think eight is the perfect age for slumber parties — I remember having three friends over for my birthday when I was in the second grade, too. The other thing she was opinionated about was what she would wear! She saw a picture on Pinterest months ago (I wish I had thought to save it!) where a little girl was dressed up funky for her roller skating party and that was all she wrote. We had an appropriately colored tutu and funky knee socks in the closet, I found that vest at Walmart and got the hipster shades in the dollar spot at Target. She was in heaven.
Of course no friendly get together is complete without silly faces and hamming it up for the camera. There were lots of these over the course of the evening.
We had a few slices of pizza while we were waiting on everyone to arrive and then we worked to get their glow bracelets and necklaces all put together. They were more than a little excited to wear these at the roller rink and I was kind of thrilled that I could easily pick them out of a crowd!
Warning: the photos at the rink are terrible, but there is no way short of being a professional photographer to capture anything here that isn’t grainy, blurry or horribly blown out. Let’s just be honest about it — I’m not that great of a photographer. You can see the girls hugging the wall there below, while Gran holds their hands and guides them around. This is pretty early in the evening and nobody was confident on wheels yet. Except me.
Unfortunately, these are the only two pictures of the parents the entire night. I’m not sure how we managed to avoid a family photo with the birthday girl. Soph skated around the rink exactly one time in her princess skates and I didn’t even get a picture. We didn’t know at the time that she was sick, but a few video games and one tiny rubber duckie cheered her up later in the evening. And the ice cream we grabbed at DQ on our way back home didn’t hurt.
They stood here at the wall and watched the kids dance for awhile before decided that they were up for some dancing, too. Immediately following was a birthday shout-out and some foot racing. Ella only had to race her two friends and unfortunately, she shoved them out of the way and crossed the finish line first. While her friends laid on the ground where she left them. Competitive much?
By the end of the night, she totally had the hang of it and we decided we should bring the girls more often since we all had so much fun. Josh isn’t a roller skater and I might not be graceful about it, but man it was fun!
When we got home, the kids donned their new sleep shirts and piled on the couch for a movie. I never expected them to sleep here, but when they fell asleep, we left them. We don’t wake sleeping children. It’s a rule. I’m surprised any of them could even move the next morning!
After breakfast, they ran outside and spent hours jumping on the trampoline. We had a few casualties — including a hair bow and a flip flop that landed on the roof and had to be rescued via the ladder by our sweet daddy. After a few pep talks and some hugs among friends, all was well.
They might be a little blurry, but you know these are my favorite!
And in case you need one more laugh, here is a video I shot of the girls in the car on the way to the rink. And less you think we’re heathens who let our children stand up in a moving vehicle, we were parked at the time and couldn’t resist capturing this little bit of hilarity. You’re welcome.
