Party Time!

Inspired by the kids' springtime obsession with the river by our house, I decided to throw Savannah a "Cool off at the River" birthday party. It was probably the easiest party I've ever thrown for one of my kids. As we waited for all the guests to arrive the girls played some small games and, once all were there, we headed down to the river.
 My greatest fear was that it would storm the day of the party because we had had a few days of rain that week but other than being a bit overcast, the weather was perfect. Thank goodness because I hadn't planned any backups.
The birthday girl on the muddy trail.

The girls were a bit tentative at first - the water was pretty cold.

Thank goodness for hot weather and brave souls, like Savannah, who jumped right in and got the party going.

And then the hot guy with the tubes showed up. The girls had a blast taking turns floating down the river!

Noah had a blast; he absolutely loves the river! I got to see all the reasons why he came home each afternoon telling stories of how he had "accidentally" fallen in the river. He's a water rat, that's for sure.

Xander seemed to be enjoying himself as well, ha ha!

If the girls weren't tubing they were doing splash wars...

or trying to dunk each other.

These two look like they're up to no good.

As I sat on "the Ariel rock" in the middle of the river, taking pictures and chatting with the girls as they floated by, Xander came up to me and calmly said, "Mom, you might not want to sit there because of the spider." I looked down and checked all around but couldn't see anything. He came up closer and pointed right by my bum but still I couldn't see anything. I finally got up and really looked and holy, moly, there was this huge spider hanging out within an inch of where I had just been sitting. Freak out time for mom!!

The afternoon flew by and all too soon it was time to head back up to the house. We took one last picture...

and then made the trek back.

We only had time for one quick game and cake before the parents started arriving.

Savannah has some great friends and it was such an easygoing, fun party! (Ashton, Sydney, Savannah, Celine, Sydney, Brooke, Jayna, and Kate)

Some final cute photos of the afternoon!