After much debate and indecision, Samantha and Amelia decided on their gymnastics studio, Cal Elite, for their 5th birthday party. This ended up being a great decision since it was pouring rain that afternoon and all the parents were grateful to have somewhere indoors to take their kids and get some energy out!
We had a major hang-up in that the party coordinator called me three and a half weeks before their party date to explain there had been a mix-up when we booked the party and they were actually going to be closed that day for a gymnastics performance! We were able to reschedule, but had to move the party date up two weeks, so I had to scramble to get everything together! Luckily, most of their classmates at preschool and friends were still able to make it!
I loved that the party coordinator let us bring all the decor ahead of time and store it in the room the day before– I’m pretty sure they were scared seeing all the tubs of stuff I hauled in and diagrams of where I wanted everything! Definitely more than they bargained for. After the party, Jake asked the coordinator and her helpers where I ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being chill party mom and 10 being crazy and they ranked me an 8.5… I guess I’m not the most high strung they’ve ever seen!
The main party coordinator assigned to us was super sweet, but had only been on the job for a few weeks and we were only her second party! I explained in advance where I wanted everything because she seemed confident she could get a lot of it set up before I arrived the next day, but when I got there an hour early, almost nothing was done.
We had to scramble to get everything up, but fortunately, Phi and Parker arrived a little early and she was able to help me with the finishing touches while Parker kept the twins and Meredith occupied in the gym. We were late making it down to the party, but thank goodness for Phi’s help– otherwise, I never would have gotten it done in time!
After debating between a flower party, a butterfly party, and a mermaid party, Samantha and Amelia decided on a mermaid party. A local mom and baker made this amazing mermaid cake for us!
All the kids ready to party!
During the party, the gym let the kids have free reign over all the equipment and set up some additional bouncy house and blow up toys. The kids loved jumping on the trampolines, swinging on the trapezes, jumping into the foam pit and practicing their cartwheels, balance beam skills and monkey bar swinging. During the week when classes are in session, the gym is filled to the brim with kids and doesn’t seem that big, but with just us there, it felt huge!
Parker runs with the girls.
Leap!
Crash!
In line for the zipline.
Tug of war!
Another pic of the kids being forced to stay still for a picture.
Amelia, Kennedy, Samantha and Sebastian.
Inevitably, we had a few meltdowns and injuries. Not even sure what Amelia was upset about!
Samantha practices her bar skills.
Another injury for Amelia.
Lily was a huge help with the kids during the party and helping us clean up.
Parker was the most awesome big brother to Meredith during the party!
You are my hero, Parker!
Sweet Gavin.
Hang on tight, Sebastian.
Comforting hug with Tanya.
Soothing another meltdown/possible injury.
Show off those trampoline skills, ladies!
Amelia, Sarah, Samantha and Maliyah.
Time flew by and we struggled to round the kids up for pizza because they were so engrossed in jumping around in the gym.
Dinner is served! The party coordinator arranged the pizza delivery, which was super easy, and we also had additional snacks, salad, fruit, pasta salad, and catered Italian from a local restaurant for the adults. I was begging people to take plates home because we had so many leftovers and we ended up freezing some trays of pasta and pizza for our own dinners that month!
Samantha REALLY wanted that cake.
Obligatory family photo in which the girls were totally not interested.
“Seafood.”
Best dinner ever!
Parker was Meredith’s personal waiter and she kept asking him to get more pasta for her. She stuffed her face!
Getting full.
Amelia and Samantha with Mila (and Parker photobombing).
Amelia, Mila, Samantha and Tanya.
Big hug for Sarah.
Amelia, Maliyah, Samantha and Allie.
Lila, Amelia, Samantha and Megan with their mermaid photo props.
Can we PLEASE eat the cake now?
After price quotes for chocolate mermaid tails on top of the cupcakes were turning out to be too pricey, I decided just to buy a cheap mold and do them myself. They turned out cute!
PLEASE I WANT TO EAT IT.
It’s finally birthday song time!
So many desserts to choose from!
I painted the oreos with edible gold spray paint to make them look like gold coins, made the “clams” with madeleine cookies and candy pearls, and piped on frosting and used edible pearls on top of the nutter butters to make flip flops. The cookies had brown sugar “sand” underneath to complete the under the sea theme.
The jello sea water cups with fishy gummies inside went fast– should have made more of those! The starfish and seashell cookies I made turned out cute too.
The sliced almonds kept falling off my homemade sand dollar cookies but oh well.
Thanks for swimming by!
The girls and I made some “mermaid slime” with glitter for the favors and spray painted gold glitter on the lids of small mason jars.
And that’s a wrap! Hopefully, everyone went home full and tired out! Lily graciously offered to stay and keep the girls occupied so that we could clean up and the Cal Elite staff was awesome about packing everything, so we really didn’t do any clean up ourselves at all. The Under the Sea theme was one of my favorites to date! 
The twins and Meredith were partied out and exhausted by the time we got home, but were so happy to hang out with their friends, eat pizza and have cake!
The after party: it was way past bedtime by the time we got home and everyone was cranky from coming down off all that sugar. We let the twins open one present each before bed, but we probably should have just stuck them straight in bed and closed the door because they were crazy tired/melting down for no logical reason:
Lots of love,
