The Willinghams: rainbow birthday

they are 4! how did that happen? our two beautiful gifts have been with us for 4 years already.

for their birthday party weekend we started out taking them on a birthday date. we left sam with don don and pappy and took the girls for their first trip to the circus.

we didn't tell them what we were doing until we got there, and i'm fairly sure they didn't exactly know what a circus was anyway, but they had a blast. abby was sitting next to me when it started. everyone was parading through, and she said in her excited voice, "oh mommy! i didn't know we were coming to the circus! you are the best birthday girl ever!" the girls favorite were the ladies dressed as mermaids who took off their tails and soared through the air doing all kinds of spins and things on bars from up high. we took full advantage of the outrageously priced circus food, but thankfully didn't end up throwing up like the kid behind us on the way out.

because we are still staying at the town home, and the two years we had it at our house on the back porch everyone almost had heat stroke, we had the party at don don and pappy's this year so we could swim. the theme was rainbow.

i figured since abby loved rainbow and emma's favorite is pink, we could cover them both. however, the day of emma randomly told me her favorite was now blue (which only lasted for a few moments because now we are back to pink). i didn't get a chance to take many decoration pictures, but here are a few. fabric bunting garland and party favors...

for their gift my incredibly gifted friend ashley made them these butterflies that we hung from the ceiling fans. she cut them from foam posterboard and individually stuck almost a thousand 3x3 squares of tissue paper she had cut into these beautiful wings specifically with each girls favorite colors. the pictures are blurry and don't even come close to doing them justice.

i made vanilla bean cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles and bright colored cupcake liners, then attempted to make a rainbow shape from the toule poms. you can't see the butterflies well, but they are from a paper source craft kit. my mom made the most delicious pink homemade ice cream as well. yummy goodness.