Rory's 4th Birthday Party

Let me start by saying that Rory always asks for the most interesting, least mainstream party themes. Last year it was a purple duck party. 

Yeah. 

Purple. 

Ducks.  

Let's just say that purple ducks aren't exactly easy to come by.  

This year she wanted a Very Hungry Caterpillar party.  This was much easier to accomplish.

Rory made me a list of everyone she wanted to invite.  Both sets of grandparents were in town too as we were blessing Owen the next day at church.  It was super fun!  

Some of Rory's favorite people are her Sunbeam teachers at church and their little boy, Hyrum.  We were super glad they were able to come (Rory talked about it for a few days after).  Hyrum is only a few days younger than Beckah and too cute for words (evidence below).

Our good friends Megan and Jeremiah let us borrow their water slide for the day and it was a HUGE hit. 

Here are Beckah and Chloe enjoying some sun and watching the big kids be crazy on the slide. 

Rory of course had to have a Caterpillar "cake" which was easier to do with cupcakes.  It was very fun! 

The little kids liked the cupcakes too...they left trails of frosting everywhere they went...

Here is a picture of my dad with Owen.  It was super awesome to have him and my mom up, along with Brady's parents.

And no summer party is complete without a pinata. 

We looked all over for a Caterpillar pinata but in the end we went with a butterfly.  I managed to get the pinata, got it filled with candy, got a bat to beat it with and then totally forgot to get rope to hang it from the tree.  My awesome husband managed tie two of my shoelaces together and hung the pinata up with that.

The big kids had to use the blind fold the first time around. 

The younger ones got to swing at it with just the bat.  

Beckah even wanted a turn. 

Everyone got lots of turns...

...because the butterfly was insanely durable. 

Even our strong older boys were having trouble. 

This next picture is one of my favorite pinata moments.  Beckah really wanted a turn again, so Brady took advantage of "helping" her to do some damage to the pinata so that the kids could actually get some candy out of it.  He would swing really hard at the pinata and Beckah would laugh SO HARD.  I will have to see if there is any video of this from my mom because it was so funny.  

After Brady "weakened" the super butterfly they kids got another turn and this time they would see some candy.  

In the end our new neighbor, who is nicknamed Juicy, got in a good swing and the candy was set free!

Then it was present time!

And of course, because these kids are all 7 and under they slowly crept closer and closer to Rory until they were practically sitting on her while she opened the presents.  Thankfully Megan was there to help keep things from getting out of control so I could keep taking pictures. :o)  We heart you Megan!

It was super fantastic day.  We topped it off by going to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's with the Grandparents and Megan and her kids!  Rory tells me it was the best birthday ever!  

Part of me can't wait to see what she comes up with next year.