Life with Meredith and Jillian: A Turtle Birthday Party

On Saturday, we celebrated Meredith's 4th Birthday with our traditional swimming party at Gigi's! In typical Meredith fashion, a few months ago, she decided she wanted to have a Turtle themed party and she never wavered. Now, you might think that Meredith had a love for turtles before this party, but you would be wrong. When I asked why she chose turtles, she told me that she wanted them because 1) She loves green and 2) They have 4 legs and she is turning 4. Who can argue with that logic? While planning the party, I have decided Meredith should go into event planning. This girl was on top of her stuff! She would constantly ask me if people were on "her list." Then she would inform those that were on "the list" that they could bring turtles to her party, but dogs and cats were NOT invited (in a very sweet way, of course). She also thought through having a special place for all the turtles that her friends would bring to hang out during the party. Beyond that, she very particular on how the invitations should look, the paper goods, the design of her cake, etc. Luckily, she and I were able to see eye-to-eye on most of the planning and she wasn't too upset by anyone forgetting their turtles at home!

As I mentioned, she had very specific ideas for the cake - some of which I wasn't sure I could or wanted to execute. I finally steered her toward making the cake look like her invitations. She was very particular that it be two tiered though. The cake process was pretty much a disaster. The icing just kept sliding right off the cake into a globby mess. I fixed it and hid some of the problem areas the best I could and then gave up. I was feeling pretty bad about it, until I showed it to her. It was probably the best feeling ever to see her when she saw the cake. Her little hands flew to the sides of her mouth as she gasped and said "That is exactly what I was thinking about!" These are the types of reactions you see the crazy over-spending brides have on all those wedding shows when they see their cakes that cost $10,000. But I got it for the cake that was a falling-apart mess! Man, I love this little girl!

I thought the turtle was pretty cute, so I just tried to only look at the top to make myself feel better! But in the end, the birthday girl was thrilled, so what more could I ask for?

Lots of green and we had some stuffed turtles that we used to decorate too.

Papa surprised Meredith by finding this turtle that usually lives in one of their flowerbeds and hooking him up to spray water into the pool during the party. This was probably the highlight of the party for her. She kept making sure all of her friends saw it and would say "Look what my Papa made for me!"

Another piece of Meredith's intense planning called for a Pinata (or "peeyata" as she would say). I was not convinced I could find a turtle pinata, but when I did, I was thrilled. I showed it to Meredith, expecting the same reaction, but instead, she just said "No, I don't like it." Really, I found you a turtle pinata and you don't like it? She explained that it wasn't "green enough." This was because it used to have a handful of brown spots. I promised her to replace them with green ones and she was sold. Now, I don't think you could find a greener turtle anywhere!

I found green cups for favors (since they could hold the candy from the pinata) and she was immediately thrilled and excited to tell me they needed turtles on them. I at first thought I could draw them, but was obviously not thinking at that moment! Luckily I found a cute stamp and added the kid's initials.

Uncle Neil helped facilitate the Pinata Party!

Here is Meredith on her second round of hitting - this is the turtle after it has lost its head. Luckily, she really wasn't upset that her turtle was getting demolished