A very merry unbirthday to Katie, to Katie

Katie turned 5 1/2 earlier this month. Since the poor kid has gotten the shaft the last couple birthdays as far as parties go (and really noticed it the last time around) I decided to assuage my maternal guilt and give her a little celebration of her own before the new baby comes. After Birthday Week, Katie was making all kinds of plans for her next birthday, and it didn't seem fair to make her wait so long to see them come to fruition.

So she got to have a half birthday party! It was a lot of fun to try to come up with "half" ideas. She invited all her closest friends, and we asked them to wear half fancy and half casual. The girls got a kick out of that. I wish I had taken pictures of the decorations -- Katie chose two colors of streamers which I swirled together, and long worm-shaped balloons which looked hilarious and were well-nigh impossible to inflate. (I sure couldn't -- thank goodness for Mr. Pickles' manly lungs!)

We did a little craft -- decorating popsicle stick puppets with markers and stickers.

Joseph had to get in on the action. (He didn't understand that it was a girls' party -- he wanted to play with the forbidden markers!)

Keeping up with the birthday theme, one of the things we served for a party snack was strawberries cut in half. I had also gotten some cookies that were half chocolate and half vanilla, but my pregnancy brain caused me to leave them in the pantry. Oh well. We enjoyed them later. :)

I had planned at least one game -- musical chairs -- but the girls were having so much fun just playing together that I decided not to complicate things unnecessarily.

She got some great presents -- I think the most well-used was a pack of glimmery card stock and scissors that cut scallops. She was pleased with everything she received, which was cute to see.

Then we sang Happy Birthday (I forgot to tell the girls to sing only half of each line -- or half of each word -- that would have been funny), and Katie blew out 5 1/2 candles placed on half cupcakes.

I was so happy to put this on for our sweet Bearcakes -- she had a great time with her friends, and got to feel special for a day, which is exactly what I wanted for her. She's so independent that it's easy to forget that she needs just as much attention as Miriam.

And now she's already making plans for her NEXT birthday....