Simplifying My Days: The Birthday Party

My oldest daughter turned 11 toward the end of May. My next daughter will turn 9 in the middle of June. My grandmother will turn 94 in the middle of June (don't tell her I told). We had a group party last Monday. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are several thousand worth.

We had the party in the backyard of the assisted living home that my grandmother resides in. It was a beautiful sunny day when we started. Our first activity was to draw outlines of the girls on the patio; then the girls colored themselves in. This picture was taken after the rain made a short surprise visit to the party.

We played a game with a hula hoop where the players stood in a circle and held hands. A hula hoop was put around one person's arm. Then the hula had to passed around the circle without anyone letting go of hands. We put short people between taller people to up the difficulty and the laughter.

For dessert, we enjoyed dirt cake. I made a gluten-free chocolate cake and chocolate avocado pudding and combined them for the cake. I put it into a new washed sand bucket from the dollar store and stuck some pretty fake black-eyes susans into it. Then I served it with the shovel that came with the bucket. Once I convinced everyone it was actually edible, it was a huge success!