Slumber Party Goodies

At last, here is the long-awaited slumber party post. :)  Thank you for being so patient, everyone.  I've spent the last few days trying to recover from my party. :}  I must be getting old!!

I realized as I got ready to do this post that I don't have all that many pictures to share.  For one thing, I was so busy having fun that I didn't take a whole lot of pics.  For another thing, as I've mentioned before, my hubby is very concerned about Internet safety, and I didn't have a chance to talk to my friends about whether they were comfortable having their pics on my blog.  So as a result, I'm not going to have any people pics in this post, which narrowed down my photo choices considerably.

I hope you can enjoy the post anyway, and can get at least an idea of how much fun we had. :)  Also, Emma is doing a post about the party on Tess and Maggie's blog with a few more photos.  You can see it HERE. 

Here is the table where we all ate at my aunt's house.  There were so many of us, we had to add a card table to the end of her dining room table. :) 

Pretty flowers on the table.

For our dinner, we had a "build-your-own pizza and salad bar".  There were all sorts of toppings to choose from.  We were each given enough dough for a personal pizza, and we spread it out on individual pieces of parchment paper with our names on them.  Then we added sauce, cheese, and any other toppings we wanted.  My mom and aunts took turns cooking our pizzas 4 or 5 at a time.  While we waited for the pizzas to cook, we made ourselves salads with the toppings and ate together.

It has always been a long-standing tradition at our slumber parties to have "Survival Kits" (also known as goody bags or party favors).  Here's Emma showing what was in each Survival Kit:  a mini notepad, a pencil and pencil sharpener, a stencil ruler, a maze game, a doll-sized pail, a mini magnetic picture frame, a mini pack of M&Ms, and a mini pack of Teddy Grahams. :) 

After we had eaten our dinner and opened our Survival Kits, we played Bingo.  My mom has one of the old Bingo cages that releases a little ball with the letter and number on it, as shown in the pic above.  She also has some antique Bingo cards that we got to use.  She and my aunt had wrapped up a bunch of small prizes for the Bingo winners (and whoever didn't win got to choose a prize at the end, too).  We had a lot of fun playing Bingo together. :)

After Bingo, it was time to have Ricotta Cheese Cake.  It was a new recipe we tried that was supposed to be a low-glycemic alternative to cheesecake.  It was good...as long as you didn't think of it as cheesecake.  The consistency was like a combination of shortbread and quiche...with less flavor.  It wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't a new favorite, either. ;}

Since I can't show you a picture of what I looked like, I thought I'd at least show you what I wore. :)  My entire outfit was given to me by my aunt, who is my fellow Bollywood fan. :)

Here is my anklet and my toe ring (sorry the pic uploaded sideways).  The anklet jingled prettily whenever I took a step.  The toe ring slid up and down my toe whenever I walked. :}  I didn't keep the toe ring on all night, but I did keep the anklet on.

A funny story about my anklet and toe ring:  when I was taking my shower before the party, I decided to shave the tops of my feet, so I wouldn't look like a Hobbit or something (come on, we've all done it, haven't we?).  Of course, I went a little too quickly over one foot and took a nice little chunk out of my skin. :(  And of course, it had to be on the foot that I was going to be wearing my anklet and toe ring (I have one ankle that is bigger than the other, due to a really stupid klutzy accident I had while goofing around as a teenager, so anklets fit better on my right ankle).  So it didn't produce quite the effect I'd hoped for, since I had a Pupcake band aid (from Strawberry Shortcake) along with my nifty jewelry. :}

Here are my beautiful arm bangles, made in India! :D  They also made a fun jingly noise when I moved my arms, and helped me feel even dressier.  I so wanted to break into a Bollywood dance wearing these! :)  Not that it would have looked anything like a dance from one of my favorite Bollywood movies...I'm horribly uncoordinated! ;)

And just to give you an idea, here are some shots of my outfit.  The first pic shows the neckline of my shirt...silly Blogger decided to upload it sideways. :}  The blue skirt I wore was absolutely beautiful, and flowed all around me when I walked.

So let's see, after we did the not-Cheesecake, I opened my gifts.  I got so many nice and thoughtful things:

A $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble...

...a really cute picture frame (perfect for my family 5x7 from JCPenney's)...

...some Usana lip moisturizer and my favorite flavor of my Usana snack bars...

...a pretty black skirt from JCPenney's (I've been needing one of those!).  Oh, and this also came with a cute little wooden gazebo, perfect for Tess's figurine collection...I just forgot to get a picture! :}

I also got this pretty tea lite set and the little devotional book "Words to Warm a Mother's Heart"...

...and my sister-in-law brought me this fuzzy velvet color-in poster.  My daughters and I colored it together once I got home. :)

I also got a $25 gift card to Target, so I succumbed and bought a Hearts 4 Hearts Nahji doll with it! :)  I have a review post coming with lots of fun pics!! :)

All in all, it was a great birthday.  Everyone had a great time together.  Two of the girls that came are girls that I've known since elementary school, and one of them is one of my dearest friends in the world. :)  The other girl, also a special friend, has a mother who has video taped just about every moment of our elementary, junior high and high school years, so she raided her mom's old videos and found some hilarious ones of us as teenagers.  Everyone was in stitches watching the old footage.  Boy, I didn't feel that old until I saw myself as a junior higher and then a high schooler! :}

After staying up waayy too late, we went to bed and woke up the next morning to my mom's homemade "Monkey Bread" (kind of similar in taste to cinnamon rolls) and scrambled eggs.  Most of the guests had to leave pretty early in the morning, but one of my friends from college didn't have anything else on her schedule, so she stayed longer.  She and my mom and my aunt and I all watched a Bollywood movie together, since she was interested in seeing a Bollywood movie. :D  She really enjoyed it and is interested in borrowing a few more from me.  Hee hee...my evil influence is spreading even wider!! 

In addition to the gifts I listed above, I also got $20 from my other aunt and $20 from my other dear friend who couldn't make it to the party.  At my family party, I got a gift certificate to a nail spa from my brother and sister-in-law and a doll bunk bed from my mom and dad (I may have already mentioned the last two gifts in a former post...sorry if I'm being redundant). :)

So, for those of you who are wondering, I officially have enough to purchase My AG #55 aka Hayden Brooke!!!!!  I am sooo excited!  All I'm waiting for now is a free shipping code from American Girl.  They usually have one in October, so I'm trying to be patient! :}  I'll let you know as soon as I order her.  And of course, once she's here, you can be sure I'll do a good review and take LOTS of pictures. :D

I hope you enjoyed my rambling post.  I had an absolutely wonderful 30th birthday, and I'm ready to see what the next 30 years hold for me. :)  The Lord is good.

I'm hoping to have my Nahji post up later this week, so keep checking back! :)