Happy 9th Birthday Dallin!

Last week my baby turned 9! I can't believe how fast it has gone by! And what a great 9 years it has been - he is such a GOOD boy! Happy Birthday Buddy!

This year for his birthday, we had a MOVIE NIGHT party. It turned out to be such a simple and fun party (I really needed the simple right now). We sent out a movie ticket with each invitation that the kids were suppose to bring to the party (I will try to post all of that in the next couple of days). When they got here, the kids played a game until everyone arrived (I put stickers on their backs with Disney characters and they had to guess who was on their backs - they really had fun with it). Once everyone was here, we made our way down to the theatre in the basement. The kids had to turn their tickets in to get into the theatre. In return, they got an envelope with 12 movie dollars for concessions. They spent the next little bit picking out what candy and drinks they wanted. We were lucky enough to borrow a movie theatre popcorn popper from our friends (thank Taylor's) - that really helped it feel like a movie theatre! Then we started the movie, Planet 51.

Halfway through the movie we had an intermission and had cake and ice cream and opened presents. I think the cake turned out really well and was super easy (I got the idea for the cake and party from my friend Angela - she does the cutest things - thanks Angela). I bake an 11x17 cake (which is 2 cakes mixes) and frosted it with cream cheese frosting. The red stripes are just fruit by the foot. To make the popcorn, I cut big marshmellows into thirds and laid them out like petals on a flower and then cut more big marshmellows in half and put them (with a little frosting) on top of the petals like the flower bud - then I placed them on the frosted cake with red stripes. I added little signs - a "9" and "Happy Birthday Dallin" to personalize it. I think it turned out really cute and the kids all loved it!

The only thing I wish I could have done differently was to have it outside. But, since it doesn't even start to get dark until 9:00 in Utah in July, that just couldn't happen. We had to have it in the basement - which worked but it would have been more fun outside.