We had a carnival.

 Lillie's party was lots of crazy fun! Since Lil is getting older, she got to invite some of her Primary friends from church. Lillie also has a slew of cousins, so between her three friends from church and cousins, there was a whopping 17 kids in attendance.

To keep with the Carnival theme we had face painting, balloon flowers&swords, and a few carnival games like gone fishing, duck pond, bean bag toss, and a three leg race. Each child received tickets for each game, depending how lucky/skilled they were, and afterwards all the kids were able to buy prizes and treats with their tickets. There were pixie sticks, cotton candy, gumballs, swirl lollipops, and circus peanuts.

So, I went to Wal Mart the night before to buy a cake. When I got to the bakery department, I stood in front of a bunch of sheet cakes for $24.99. I couldn't do it. I really wanted to just buy a cake. I just couldn't justify spending 25 bucks on a crappy tinkerbelle cake that would cost a slight fraction of the cost to make myself and didn't even go with the theme. Instead I bought $6 worth of ingredients and attempted to make clown cones. It was almost a failing attempt, but the whole process went quickly. I will never know how Baskin Robin's gets their smiles to stick to the ice cream. Oh well. They sort of looked like clowns (the kind you have nightmares about).

In the end, it was an exhausting, hot day. Lillie loved every waking minute and said, "Mom! I'm five now!" at least 27 times that day. She woke up to 5-shaped pancakes, got her fingernails polished, had her birthday party, and ended the evening eating at her restaurant of choice: Arctic Circle (where all she ate was fries).