Before we start this post - have you left your guess for the Tie Challenge? If not, please do so! He's still going strong but it looks like more ties have been worn than are left to go!
I finally have Katie Wynn's birthday party pictures to share! After Thomas's Petting Zoo party last June, she spent the whole summer asking A) if it was her birthday yet and B) if all the "amimals" would be at her party. I had resigned myself to the fact that we were just going to have a repeat of Thomas's petting zoo party since that seemed to be what she wanted.
But, we couldn't really get the timing to work out with the Petting Zoo. I knew there was a cute vintage ice cream truck that could come to her party so I started really talking that up. We would have a backyard playground party at Mimi's and Poppy's house like last year but this time the ice cream truck would come and serve treats. Easy. Done. She was excited about the ice cream.
And then I was perusing Pinterest one afternoon and saw the cutest idea for a car wash. Our kids play in their Cozy Coupe cars nonstop when we're outside. At first, I thought I'd tuck away the idea for next year but then it hit me that I still had time...the party was still two and a half weeks away!
Honestly, I was kinda glad to finally get excited about planning the party. I found super easy plans online, got my Dad and Matt on board (they are the best), and before the weekend was over they had two car washes assembled. Then it was my turn to decorate them. The hardest part was finding pool noodles since summer was over. I ended up spending more than I would've liked by buying them online, but the dollar stores didn't have them anymore. Special thanks to Lala and Poppa (Matt's parents) who helped me decorate in the heat of our garage!
All the info you need to make one of these on your own is in that link I posted in the last paragraph. We only modified the plans to make it a little wider. I used a shower curtain from Target for my flaps and the sponge balls came from Oriental Trading.
I had a helper while setting up for the party. In addition to the two car washes, we also set out buckets of soapy water and big sponges. I got them for super cheap at Dollar General!
When Katie Wynn woke up from her nap and got to come outside to see it all set up, she was so excited!
Now on to the party pictures! The ones above were taken from my phone. Credit for the following ones goes to Kasey McAlpin. Disclaimer: from these pictures, it will look like the birthday girl did not have any fun at all. I assure you she did! She is SO incredibly shy around big groups of people - especially when everyone tries to talk to her. Neither she nor Thomas actually rode through the car wash while our guests were there but she went on and on that night about how fun her party was and when she could have another one.
Matt and I dressed with the understanding that we might have to be active participants and get very wet!
I bought this gas pump off Zulily on a whim and it arrived a week before the party. Perfect timing! And it worked great with the theme!
Watching guests start to arrive while building a tower of sponges.
I love that Levi drove his present up to Katie Wynn!
Thank goodness for my nephews! They wasted no time jumping on their bike/trike and riding through the car wash. It helped the little kids understand what to do!
Isn't this the cutest picture of them washing their bikes together? Sing it with me..."workin' at the car wash..."
I'm pretty sure those bikes were squeaky clean when they went home. :)
Ever the shy one, Katie Wynn opted to supervise her friends instead of really participate in the fun!
Here are a bunch of snapshots of all of our guests at the party. So fun, right?!
I LOVE these of Davis and Addi Clare filling up their gas tanks. :)
I love the one below on the right of Thomas...it looks like he's bracing for cold water impact!
Grant doesn't even have to get out of his car to clean it!
Watching from a safe distance.
Bren is serious about detailing her bike. :)
How fun is this group action shot? Wax on, wax off, boys and girls!
Awesome shots of Everett driving through the water!
Everyone was busy washing their cars and having fun when all of a sudden, we could hear loud music and this cool vintage ice cream truck pulled up!
Katie Wynn was so pumped about the ice cream truck. She constantly asked me about it beforehand and I told her she would get to climb on the truck and pass out the ice cream to everyone. One day at daycare I told her to tell her teacher what we were gonna do for her party and she responded with, "There gonna be uh ice cweam twuck and I gonna pass out!" I had to finish that sentence for her teacher...that she was going to pass out ice cream, not fall out from excitement! :)
Are we surprised that when it actually showed up she got scared and needed me to hold her?
This is about as good of a family pic as we could get.
Before we climbed onto the truck, the driver (her name escapes me but she was so nice!) gave Katie Wynn a present. It was the cutest mini replica of the truck made out of paper that she opened up to reveal a chocolate cupcake! It was seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen.
Then Katie Wynn and I climbed into position and got to work - there was ice cream to be eaten!
Here we are settling up with the ice cream truck at the end. If it looks like we're in deep deliberation, it's because we were trying to decide which ice cream treats we wanted to stock our freezer with for later that night!
Our photographer, Kasey, was only able to stay for the first hour or so of the party, so her pictures stop there. Thank goodness for Lala being there with her camera to pick up where she left off! Here are more snapshots that she captured.
Do you remember back in June at Thomas's first birthday party when Katie Wynn had face-planted on the driveway and had a scraped up face? Well, Thomas did the same thing for her party! His scrapes were a little fresher - he fell right before the event started - so they weren't scabbed up yet at the party.
He didn't let a couple of scrapes keep him from enjoying goodies from the ice cream truck, though.
Note to self: don't hand the birthday girl a bright pink ice cream bar until after we're finished taking pictures next year.
This was the first time we'd really done the whole open-gifts-in-front-of-friends thing and my goodness, they were ALL excited to see what Katie Wynn opened. :)
Our party came to an end after we finished with the gifts. Good thing too because after playing in the water on an overcast day and then eating ice cream, there was lots of shivering going on from our little guests. :)
I love that we have these carwashes now! They broke down easily for us to store flat in our garage but will be so easy to pop back together next summer when the weather heats back up. And if anyone else wants to have a carwash party, please borrow our supplies!