Rylie's 4th Birthday: The Party

Rylie had such a fabulous birthday party on Saturday! We had 39 adults, 33 kids and 2 babies in attendance, and everyone had a great time! It was a huge party, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. We have so many wonderful friends and family members, and it was awesome having so many people come out to celebrate Rylie's special day!

We held the party at the same place we had it last year - Double Down Athletics. This is such an awesome place to have a birthday party! It is a HUGE gym filled with bounce houses, trampolines, and all kinds of fun equipment for the kids to play on. The employees do all of the work while the kids (and even the parents) play. They set everything up, serve pizza and drinks, cut and serve the cake, and even carry everything out to your car at the end. The best part about it is that it is private, so only your party is in there.

I usually stress about throwing birthday parties, but I really didn't this time. I had everything ready to go the night before, and since the party wasn't until later in the afternoon, we weren't rushing around to get out the door. The only part I was stressed about was the cake, but it turned out absolutely amazing!

The cake was made by my friend's sister. Rylie can't have store-bought cakes because of her tree nut allergy, but she REALLY wanted a My Little Pony Cake. After mentioning this to my best friend, she volunteered our other friend's sister to make the cake. Laura is a cake decorator at Publix and does such awesome work, so she baked the cake at home, and then took it in to decorate it. The only reason I was a little nervous about it was because I did not see it until they showed up to the party with it. I had no control over it, and didn't even know what it was going to look like, so needless to say, I was just a little worried. There was no reason to be, though, because she did a great job!

OK, so on to the party...

Rylie ran in and started jumping away with Uncle Danny on the big trampoline track.

At the end of the track was a huge foam pit that the kids LOVED. There was a lot of kid tossing.

Bryce spent a lot of time in the foam pit, but always had a hard time getting out.

I even got on the trampoline track to have some fun with my brother. We used to have a trampoline in our back yard when we were kids, and we figured out how to jump right before the other person to make them really spring up high. Of course we had to have some "old school" fun!

Bryce was all over the place and we couldn't keep up with him. He played around on all of the different equipment.

Even the little ones had fun!

There was a yellow trampoline that was apparently so springy that adults had to sign a special waver if they wanted to jump on it.

There were several races down the trampoline track.

The littles even got in on the racing fun.

At one point I went over to get the tables set up, and it had already been done by the party hosts. They were even trying to hang up the birthday banner, but they didn't bring tape with them.

Check out this awesome birthday banner made by my friend Tiffany from Uniquely Me Designs! If you totally love this, come back later on this week for a GIVEAWAY!

I had a twin at the party! My friend Jen wore a similar shirt, and even my brother almost went up to her several times thinking she was me.

The rule was only one kid on the trampoline at a time. That rule was broken often.

Rylie did get her one-person-only jumping time, though. It took a few of us to get the kids to clear out for her just for a few seconds.

Most of the kids spent the hour and a half of free play on the trampoline and in the foam pit, so I have no pictures of the bounce houses. They had big slides and everything, but the kids loved that foam pit. At the end of play time, one of the party hosts told all the kids to get in the pit, and they had a few rounds of throwing the blocks up and screaming as loud as they could.

After all of that playing, the kids (and adults) were ready for some pizza.

After pizza, it was time for cake. Rylie LOVED her My Little Pony Cake!

We sang Happy Birthday and she blew out her candles. Unfortunately, she had a little helper next to her, and she wasn't very happy when he blew out the last candle. So we sang again, and she got to blow out all of her candles. Logan was just as excited as she was, so his mom held him close to her that second time.

All was right with the world again.

Rylie scarfed down her delicious cake and only managed to get frosting on her arm. Bryce, on the other hand, wasn't so neat with his.

While we were passing out goody bags and saying our goodbyes, our awesome party hosts loaded up the car.

I had been saying all night that I wanted to get a picture of Brian and I with Rylie, and at the last minute, we finally got one.

I had to get one last picture with the Birthday Girl!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to celebrate Rylie's birthday! We had a great time, and I hope you all did too!