Monday Listicles: An 11-Year-Old’s Birthday

I promise I’ll move on from discussing the fun of Jenny’s birthday week after this post. This week’s Monday Listicles topic is birthdays, so I thought I’d wrap up all the birthday talk with a list of 10 details about Jenny’s actual birthday party on Saturday.

1. We went to our local Embassy Suites to celebrate Jenny’s birthday. I saw this idea for a girl birthday party a couple years ago, and this seemed like the perfect year to try it. It was actually cheaper than some of the bigger parties we’ve done at our local bounce house or Chuck E. Cheese – and perfect for this kind of in-between age (but I kind of hate the word tween).

2. We brought three friends, so it was me and 3 11-year-old girls. I chose the Embassy Suites because it would allow them to be in a separate room from me within the suite. So I had my own space! (Where I used my Kindle Fire to watch as many episodes of Grey’s Anatomy as I could manage in between reminding the girls they needed to be quiet.)

3. The girls were very happy to be able to enjoy the pool and the hot tub, twice, while we were there.

4. After fun pool time, they decided to get all fixed up to head out to dinner. They really had fun putting on dresses and doing their hair and nails (and a teeny bit of makeup). But don’t they look older than 11 walking to dinner?

5. We had a little trouble with our dinner plans. We were planning to walk across the street to Mellow Mushroom, but by the time they finished getting ready, it was 7:00 and Mellow Mushroom was very crowded. We walked around a bit to decide if there was a better option, but ended up heading back there since it was what Jenny really wanted. Fortunately, they are all equipped with electronic devices to help them get through a wait.

6. We ended up bringing the pizza back to the room because we got rained on since we were seated outside, but that was fine with them because they were ready for the next part of their evening. Birthday cake! Jenny had picked out a cookie cake at the store and we brought it with us.

7. Next: eating junk food (we were smart and packed food and drinks) and watching a movie on demand. And Jenny was very happy to see Hunger Games was available. It went perfectly with her new Hunger Games pajamas.

8. Next was the part where they were never going to go to sleep. I felt like I wasn’t too mean about it, but at 4:00 I told them they had to go to sleep or we wouldn’t be going back to the pool in the morning. That did the trick and they finally settled down.

9. We enjoyed the hotel’s awesome breakfast buffet the next morning before one more quick pool visit.

10. We completed one more search of the room to make sure no one forgot anything, and then we headed out to drop the other girls off and come home. It was a successful birthday party – Jenny enjoyed it, and she’d love to have one like this again.

Linking up (late again) for Monday Listicles.

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