whoops

m has the best, most amazing audiologist, sarah. she is the person who sat across from us as we held a squirming newborn and told us that our baby had profound hearing loss. she's also gotten us out of countless cochlear implant emergencies, lets me texts her at any time, and has the best toys of any medical office. (which is good when you have to lug two kids to an appointment and m's appointments can be hours long.) she's genuine and generous and gives so much to the families she works with. 

in short? we love, love, love her. 

at m's last appointment, while sarah was working on programming her new implants, m was doodling, and decided to draw sarah a picture to put up in her office. keep in mind that at times monrovia flips some of the letters when she is writing words, since sounding out is still a struggle for her. 

my sweet, big-hearted girl was working away and wrote this:

yes, that's right. instead of writing superhero? take one more look. 

monrovia earnestly passed her sign to sarah & said "you can put this up in your office!"; unable to suppress our laughter, all the adults in the room started laughing (monrovia was totally confused.)

and just like that sarah has a new nickname in her office. 

(ps sarah really is a superhero)

i scream, you scream

ruby deliberated for months and months over what her 6th birthday party theme should be. some of the contenders? everything is awesome party, an art party, an inside out party based on the movie, a princess lego party ("then the girls and the boys will be happy"), a star wars party (this one was definitely because some of her favorite kids love star wars- at that point she'd never ever seen a clip from a star wars movie)! when she mentioned an ice cream party i latched onto that one because who doesn't like ice cream?!

so ice cream party it was! all week long the weather predicted rain, and then on the day of, it was clear by mid-afternoon. hooray!

the birthday girl

usually at parties we have actual food, but this time we offered...sugar! ice cream, toppings, cookies, and for the adults? cocktails. my plan was to sugar up these kids like crazy, let them wiggle their bodies for a couple of hours, and then send them home to crash with their families. (you're very welcome.)

i picked up these ice cream containers then personalized them with cute stickers that said "ruby's ice cream shop" from zazzle! 

(sidebar: i was stressing out because my stickers weren't showing up and then viola! customer service expedited them to me and they made it! super helpful! thanks, zazzle!)

my girls were so excited about these colored ice cream cones! 

i was so excited about this cute sprinkle tablecloth from target!

the finished sprinkle cookies i posted about last week (recipe there too!) 

sugar with a side of sugar:

and i threw in some natural sugar in the form of fruit, which i think i ate all by myself:

in case you decide to throw a kid ice cream party, let me save you some time: by exponential numbers, rainbow sherbet was the favorite, far outpacing vanilla and cookies and cream. i should have ditched the cookies and cream and just had vanilla and rainbow sherbet. who knew?

so serious about their ice cream

cuteness & ice cream on little faces everywhere you looked!

with a few adult conversations thrown in

            

monrovia decided she couldn't finish her sundae because all the sugar was making her tummy ache.

um, what?

who is this child?

then we had stations for the kids to get all of their sugared up energy out!
the surfing station, which was the equivalent of a bull riding station because most kids were trying to stay on and toss everyone else off while being as crazy as possible:

the hula hoops became a conga line....

and used for human tricks!

(please ignore the fact that we have still not fixed and repainted the stucco around our doors and windows as evidenced by those pictures)

there was also the swing and climb station:

the hammer things station:

and the bounce house station!

(of course it isn't a party without a few tears, and ours was no exception. the bounce house brings out all the big feelings:)

(by the way-my friend keith, pictured here, told me to take this picture to capture the fullness of the day. doesn't every single party or playdate have some crying involved? oh, is that just my house?)

sweet girls from ruby's class

and then thanks to the wind, ruby blew out non-existent flames as we sang her into her sixth year!

after two hours of a steady sugar stream, we sent the kids home with non-sugar treat goodie bags.

inside were stickers, pencils, miniature puzzle erasers, and a personalized coloring book i made for the kids!

 

 

the stickers on the outside of the bags said "thank you! ruby"

here are two pages from the coloring book! it was so fun to make!

 

our birthday girl was thrilled, and felt super loved by everyone who came and celebrated. matt's favorite moment was overhearing her as she raced around the corner, "who wants to play with the birthday girl!?" if you know ruby, you know that she is less prone to seek attention (ahem, unlike her sister), so we knew she was having fun. our hope for her party was that she would feel special, and that it would be a time where kids and adults were able to hang out, play, talk, and laugh. that i think it was. 

i love parties because they have the potential to be spaces outside of work and obligation where you can connect with other people, whether it's old friends, someone you've never met, or family. that's one of the reasons we have so many of them! (another reason is so we are forced to deep clean our house or finish house projects every so often! nothing like the pressure of guests!)

to more parties, to making new friends and seeing old ones, to many more years of life for our ruby, and to ice cream!