Semi-Homemade Birthday Party

So, I told you that I like to throw really fun, creative parties. And I've been fairly capable of that in the short years I've been a mom. But... then came this year, with the big family Christmas at OUR house, the run of illness including RSV, the still-adjusting-to-2-kiddos-plus-2-full-time-careers... the list goes on. Long story short, we got to January without a party planned for Big Sister.... and her birthday was Dec 29. Damnit.

Don't get me wrong, we did the family thing while everyone was here for Christmas... but it wasn't the creative kind of party I like to throw. It was a BBQ dinner after G-man's baptism, with balloons and a Tink cake (eek - a character! How did this happen?!) Oh, and some rock band with Mr. Fix-It and Uncle Frank:

But, in my mind, a party isn't a party unless there's some type of theme and everything - invites, cake, food, decor, everything! - ties back to it. I felt like I'd run out of time and I can't describe to you the sadness I felt that I'd let down my precious 3 year old (okay, so I don't think she even noticed, but that's the kind of irrationality that comes with being a mom, right?)

I tossed around the idea of doing what everyone else in her preschool class was doing - gym/bounce house-type parties.... the ease of it all was very tempting... but it was going to be hard to be as creative as I wanted. In the end, Mrs. Everything had the brilliant idea that the 4 of us and the 3 of them would load up and go to Great Wolf Lodge - a mini vacation.

I immediately got started on a safari/camping theme... Okay, so I only needed one invite, BUT.... in my mind, the invite would make it a 'real' party, so I whipped one up quickly late on a Fri night. Here it is:

Instead of a cake, I made cupcakes with oreo 'dirt' and gummy worms crawling out.... (Believe it or not, it was entirely dairy-free! Duncan Hines cake mixes are dairy free. But even more unbelieveable is that frosting can be dairy free and so are oreos!! Let's just not think about how or why that's possible...

We had so much fun! We got there on Fri, had dinner, got in the pool and did the baby slides... they kiddos played until 9pm, then time for storytime at the bell tower, and then the infamous cupcakes at 10pm!! Troopers! The next morning, we headed back to the waterpark and Big Sister rode all the rides (even some she wasn't tall enough for!), did the lazy river, and ate way more Oreos than a kiddo ever should. Unless it's their birthday. Super fun!

And that's how I did just enough to give her a creative, but not entirely time consuming, bday party.... semi-homemade.

And people, bare with me as my pics aren't in the order I wish they were... this damn blogging, I knew I didn't have time to figure it out....