you're invited to a birthday party!

today is my birthday. 

i am 25.  

i have been thinking a lot about my past birthdays. man, i've had some great birthdays.

 i love reminiscing about my childhood and getting older just makes me want to do it more. 

i just love this picture. i think i am four. not quite sure. 

i think i am three. i don't remember anything about this party at all. it's just cute. i guess my theme was the little mermaid. if you look through my photo album, you'll see that a lot of my parties have disney princess themes. and i must have really loved that lunchbox because it's in a lot of photos too. also, we apparently ate kfc back in the day...

 

i am five. and for the record, this photo is not from my party but i couldn't find one from the actual day-of. this party was amazing. i had a cinderella "carnival". we lived in this little house behind a bigger house that had a full basketball court and my party was there. my mom planned all kinds of cinderella-themed games. we had this bowling game where we knocked over soda bottles with pictures of the wicked stepmother and stepsisters on them with plush pumpkins. we "fished" for prizes with the fairy godmother's wand. we probably danced or something, i can't remember for sure. it was really fun.

this starts the american girl phase. i think i was eight in this picture. i had two american girl tea party themed birthdays - eight and nine. all the girls brought their dolls, we had tea sandwiches, petit fours and lemonade. we played old fashioned games like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and clothes pin drop (see below). the first year we decorated straw hats with ribbons and flowers and each girl got to take theirs home. the next year we made matching ones for our dolls. the girls brought home old fashioned penny candy as a favor. it was so much fun. both times! 

i even wrote out all the invitations myself - and kept one for some reason? i sure am glad though! it is so fun to look back at my old handwriting. 

this was my sixteenth birthday. this was the year my family moved from california to massachusetts. why am i not with my family on my birthday? well, i'd already signed up for girls camp, youth conference and education week and it just made more sense for me to stay in california. so my good friend stephanie's family (the nordblads) took me in for that summer. they sure made my birthday special even though i was so far away from my family. 

these aren't all of my birthdays, of course. but they are ones that stand out. i sure have great friends and family. and if you have any questions why i like to throw parties and celebrate holidays so much i guess you could just say i was raised that way! :)