Carlaya's Candyland

Welcome to Carlaya's Candyland!  :)  Last year we decided we were going to do friend parties every OTHER year since Carlaya and Noah are only 4 days apart.  It was really hard for Carlaya not having a party but with her turning 8, there was so much more to celebrate so she was fine.  She did however, spend the whole year thinking of grand plans for her 9th Birthday! She wanted something fun, something BIG and something Themed.  I looked all over online and found so many very cute ideas. But in the end we decided on Candyland.  The decorations were a ton of work but the cheapest thing.  Balloons, tissue paper & poster board all from the $1 Store!  I bet I spend less than $10 on ALL the decorations.  But I did put in over 10 hours of work and had my sister spend hours making the pom poms hanging from the ceiling!  Thanks Jenny!!

 

So they walked up the driveway lined with Giant Lollipops and into to Gumdrop Mountain (not much decor there-so not picture) AND Lollipop Forest!

 

I tried to draw a cute Gingerbread house to hang along the game board walkway, but it just seemed out of place with the other deco, so we won't give an up close pic! LOL

This canopy of streamers looked even cooler in person than here, but man was it a pain!  Took over an hour to hang them all up and my back was KILLING me. Needless to say, we left it up to enjoy for over a week! ;)

Every ones favorite part...The Candy Buffet!  We had two 2 year olds in HEAVEN and we couldn't keep them out of it!  During the games I let each group take a turn coming to get a few pieces of candy. Then during Musical Squares they got candy if their color was called. At the end of the party they got to fill their goody bag to take home.  Who knew 9 year old could clean out some much candy!  I mean POUNDS of candy!

Divided into 3 groups for the games.... At Gumdrop Mtn they made these candy airplanes out of smarties, life savers, & a stick of gum. It was a struggle for some to make but we got better at it as each group came by! ;)

In the Lollipop Forest they had markers & stickers to decorate their own lollipop.  We had some pretty cute & creative ones!
The last group was King Kandy Says. (Simon Says)  and bet you can't guess who was King Kandy?  That's right, good ol' Jonny boy.  LOL  He wore a cape and even picked up his own crown from Burger King! :) Darn, I didn't get a picture.  He did pass of his duties real quick and the girls play Queen Kandy and be the ones calling orders.  But it was fun and the kids got a kick out of it!

Lastly, we played Musical Squares all together.  Yes that's 16 crazy, loud, hyped up on sugar girls! I played fun music as they walked on the colored squares and when I stopped the music and called out a color they were OUT. The winner got to load up on Candy!  Next round, if I called your color you got to run to the candy buffet, load up and then hop back in the game.  They loved this version better!

Before opening presents, we had 2 door prize gifts to give away. We played "hot potato" with them and had the girls passing 5 to the left, 3 to the right, 1st one in pink to the right, etc... till we ended on a winner.

I think the girls had a blast and I hope I wore them out enough with games, so they didn't go home to crazy hyper!

Present time! If you can only imagine how much Carlaya got from having that many girls over! Luckily lots just gave her $$ and gift cards!  She was beyond thrilled & totally spoiled!

This is her best friend Hanna!  Hanna got Carlaya this cute hat and even brought her own to show they MATCH!   Carlaya was embarrassed to match! LOL  But she loves Hanna!!

Lastly, we sugared them up one more time with Birthday Cake and then sent them off to their parents!  It went from chaos to peaceful quiet real quick!  Luckily all my kids & cousins left here were on the sugar low by now & we had a great quiet movie night! :)

Carlaya insisted on having her face on her cake, saying, "happy birthday to me"  LOL Where she thought of that?? I dunno!  I decided it was better to say "It's my 9th Birthday" instead. The cake lady got a kick out of that!