Flashback Friday

Kassie's 5th Birthday Party

Saturday, September 8th 2001

Douglas, AZ

We moved from Douglas in June of 2001. She had just finished her first year of pre-school. She had made a lot of friends, and was really missing them. I still had a lot of friends, and I was missing them too. Not to mention a lot of family. We decided to host a small party at McDonald's and drive down to Douglas for the weekend. She was really into NSYNC at the time, who wasn't? So she chose that theme for her party. For invitations, I made "Back Stage Passes."
I used a program on Print Shop and copied and pasted a picture of NYSNC. I printed them on card stock and had them laminated. I ordered lanyards from Oriental Trading Company and attached them. I ended up mailing them to my mom, and she distributed them. For the first time, my mom and I did not make the candy bags because Kassie wanted to use the plastic NSYNC ones from the party store. Go figure. It was simple, and it was nice to catch up with everyone.

Kassie's 5th Birthday Party

Hawaiian Luau

Saturday, September 15th, 2001

Chandler, AZ

Nicholas, Kassie, Justin, our then nanny Alma, & Nachito

This time again, we almost cancelled Kassie's birthday party. Her actual birthday is September 11th, and this was 2001. So the attacks had happened the Tuesday before. The news was non-stop about the attack. People were scared and it was very sad to watch T.V. Again, after talking with everyone, we decided to go on with the party. I picked a Luau theme because quite frankly it was HOT. I was not used to this kind of heat.

For invitations, I looked and looked for mini glass bottles for a "Message in a bottle" invitation. I couldn't find anything. Out of chance, I stopped at Pier 1 and found mini bottle shaped spice jars with a cork on top. They were perfect. I bought sand and miniature sea shells at Michael's and added them to the bottle. I bought tan scrap book paper and printed the information for the party on them. I cut them in different shapes, and stood by the stove and burnt the edges of the paper. I rolled them in a scroll and inserted them into the bottle. I tied a bow around the bottle with some raffia, and they were done. They looked very authentic. I found a cool Hawaiian website that sold kids outfits. I ordered Kai her red luau outfit and Nachito his shirt. They were decked out. I made watermelon bowls with lots of fruit and Buddy made Teriyaki chicken for food. The kids played limbo outside and we also rented a jumper. I think she enjoyed having two birthday parties.

Next Weeks theme: One guess, she was almost six. Disney Princess's of course.