Perfectly Pink Party

Me again, after all this time, although I guess three weeks isn't the longest between blogs, huh? I had these pictures loaded, but couldn't seem to find the time or the motivation to get in here and write. It's early morning here in our corner of the world so I thought in the quiet of the morning, I could concentrate and do this before the rest of the family is roused. I just saw one daughter off to work anyway. It looks like another lovely sunny and warm day here in the Northwest. Summer has finally arrived.

However, the day of the perfectly pink party for Farmer Girl, the weather was not so cooperative. We awoke to grey skies and drizzly cool weather. Quite a disappointment although things did improve and there was no downpour of rain. Could have been much much worse as our weather is unpredictable.

After the scavenger hunt, the teams arrived back in groups. Entering through this gate made from scraps, they entered our backyard. We added the boards with adjectives that described our girl and added them in a wacky manner. If you can't see them well, there was wacky, creative, friendly, a blessing, unique, fun, loyal, pessimistic, sweet, gullible, and kind....Bob spent hours stringing all of the lights along the pink rope evident in the background. It was quite nice after dark. 

Just like the above decor made possible with friends' generous donation of lights and tiki torches, we couldn't have done the banner and pom poms below without their help too. You can't see it very well, but it says Happy Sweet 16 on the banner. A friend made the letters for me on her computer as well as the lovely border. The pom poms were made over a few weeks and she actually set out wanting HUNDREDS of them! This seemed to be plenty and she did it with a little help from her friends. You can see the sun shining on them as it began to peak out as the day waned.


Birthday girl together with two close friends.



The party began with a quiz about Farmer Girl to see how well everyone knew her. There were questions about where she was born, her favorite show, favorite color, middle name, favorite summer sport, kind of dog she wants, favorite coffee shop, favorite Pixar, favorite Disney princess, favorite flower, her most daring feat, etc. Everyone sat in groups and worked together on some answers. You can see dad in background preparing Thai and other Asian delights on his wok.

We even had PINK Gernera Daisies in jars wrapped with PINK ribbon
(also borrowed from generous friends)

Others working hard on their quizzes.

Chinese Cashew Chicken

Chicken Yaki Soba

We also had egg rolls (not homemade although he does make them), teriyaki chicken, watermelon, pineapple, and carrots  Seems like there was more.......

After "grading" the quizzes, the final answers were announced with the winner awarded a small prize. Not surprisingly, one of her best friends won. Surprisingly, some who she thought knew her well, did very poorly, and some who she thought didn't know her well, did better than others. Here she is above with Jed beside her, who,  when he heard where she was born, said, "That explains a lot of things!" :) 

A great group of kids enjoying themselves.

The prison was near the fire and these are their prisoners being guarded. If you look really closely, you can see Farmer Girl running across the background. She was spotted right after this and captured!

We had a game master in charge of activities so before dark, they broke up into teams to play "Capture the Flag". There were two team leaders, Farmer Girl and the girl who knew her best, and they chose their teams. 

After a great game of running through woods and bogs, getting wet and capturing the flag for the win, the teams retired to the inside of the house for the viewing of the scavenger hunt pictures. Farmer Girl, after viewing and assigning points, chose the winner and they each received a candy bar. 

Hershey bars prettily wrapped in paper and ribbon.

Farmer Girl designed the cake for The Graduate to make for her. We began the process days in advance, baking and freezing the many layers of yellow and lemon cakes. Once again, with the help of generous friends who were willing to lend their cake pans, we were able to do this. She actually wanted many more layers, but we told her it was not a wedding cake. Then we contemplated five layers, but stopping at four once we saw the size and scope of the project. Each time, she makes a cake, we all learn something more about the process and working with fondant. Last time, we realized that with this many layers and weight, it is necessary to add support between the layers.  

The color was not exactly what she had hoped for, but it was pink like everything else :) The flowers cascading down the side were kind of last minute, but worked to great effect. The making of the cake was not without it's tense moments when the designer and creator could not quite agree on something, but in the end, common sense prevailed and the result was very nice.     

Sixteen candles.

Her agony at being the center of attention was prolonged
with the very long and slow singing of Happy Birthday!

My view from the kitchen window from where I chaperoned and washed up all the dishes.
See our sky of lights?

After cake, it was time for other favorite party games like "Do You Love Your Neighbor?" and "High School Musical Chairs". There was also time for Murder, especially fun in the dark in the woods :) High pitched squeals and screams along with somewhat loud music was the norm for the rest of the evening. None of the neighbors turned us in though and the party died down a bit when the guys left at around midnight.  Many girls stayed over for the night and the remainder of the evening was spent watching movies, snacking, and reliving their favorite moments of the evening.

It was a fun and enjoyable evening spent with friends. It was a great group of kids to spend time with and to celebrate this momentous and PERFECTly pink occassion.