Claire and Grace's Birthday Swim Party!

I gave Claire a choice this year. She could either get nicer presents from her Dad and me, or she could use her birthday budget on a friend party and get one or two smaller presents from us. She opted for a friend party...combined with her bestie Grace, of course! In fact, they already had it all worked out. Claire told me they wanted to have a "Sandwich Party"! I was all about that!! Until I found out that "Sandwich Party" didn't mean a party with sandwiches...which would have been awesome. What it actually meant was a party sandwiched between the two girls' birthdays. They decided on a swim party with a mermaid theme...which was only slightly cooler than the sandwich idea. :)

Late May is so tricky in Utah. It could totally be swimming weather...or you could be shoveling snow off your driveway. Laura (Grace's Mom) and I watched the weather for over a week, and it fluctuated between rain with cool temps and sunny with cool temps. So we made all sorts of contingency plans in case we were stuck inside, and in case we could be outside but it was too cold to swim. The day of the party arrived, and the temperature was supposed to be in the low 70s. Danny had turned on the heater in the pool the night before, so we decided to go ahead and let the girls swim. 

Because we were swimming, the party was pretty simple. Claire and I had been searching Pinterest for ideas, and we came up with these cupcakes. I made them myself, and I was very pleased with how well they turned out! Claire requested ocean water, so we made sure to have that. I found a cute sign that turned it into mermaid potion, and I even burned the edges making it look all piratey and stuff. I was really flexing my creative muscles with this party! ;)

The only other request the girls had was for everyone to make a shell necklace or bracelet. Laura was in charge of this part, and she did a great job! The girls (and Johnny!) all loved it! And it was a great way to get the party started as we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

While everyone was finishing up their bracelets, we handed out drinks...complete with cute little umbrellas!

The girls were all anxious to hit the pool, but first we had to blow out the candles, eat cupcakes, and do presents! It would be so much easier to do the aforementioned with dry girls as opposed to soaking wet and cold girls. :) 

I just have to say, Claire and Grace couldn't be better friends. Or more prefect for each other! It has been such a blessing in Claire's life to have such a perfect friend, and I have no doubt they'll be best friends forever! 

So...it was a little breezy. Every time we lit the candles they blew out. So we had the girls pretend...you can tell they thought it was a little ridiculous. :) But once that was out of the way, it was time for presents. The girls' friends were very generous, and they got lots of fun stuff!

 

 

And we had to get some cute pictures of these cute girls. Again, before they all got wet! 

 Finally it was time to hit the pool! Turns out, the heater turned off during the night, so the water was pretty chilly. And it wasn't really that warm outside, so the girls got pretty cold! Somehow, though, that didn't stop a single one of them. :)

It was a fantastic party, and I think the girls were very happy! It was definitely the perfect way to kick off another amazing year for these beautiful girls!