I have a thing for birthdays. I am not a super fun mom when it comes to arts, crafts, games or anything messy, but when my children have a birthday, I go all out. I love quirky themes, funky decor, and just trying to make their day whimsical. My number one rule of birthdays is that my kids always pick their own theme. Even when Zianne was turning one, we did a "Rockin' Robin" theme, as an ode to her favorite song at the time. Since then, we've had an ABC birthday, a beach party, a ballet birthday, and now this... A GUMBALL PARTY! Z started begging to chew gum back when she was two-years-old. Off the cuff, I told her, "You can chew gum when you're five." As a new mom, I really had no idea when children are capable of chewing gum, but I consulted with a few friends after the statement had been made, and they told me five is actually a pretty good age to introduce gum. Phew... About six months ago, after yet another conversation about how Z could finally chew gum on her next birthday, she declared "I want a gumball party when I turn five!" And that's how the theme was born. A few weeks later, a tagline for the party came to me... "Gum one, gum all! We'll have a ball." I love words, so puns and wordplay will pop into my mind at the oddest times. I came up with the tagline when I was taking out the trash one night. Despite my love of birthday parties, I tend to keep the food and decor fairly simple. I got some decor from Walmart. I went with bright colors that would match traditional gumballs. I made chocolate and strawberry cupcakes (edit: my MOM made the cupcakes) and decorated them with white frosting and gumballs. I bought a classic gumball machine bank to use as the centerpiece for the food table (which doubled as a gift to Z), and that was pretty much it. The only game we played was having the kids guess how many gumballs were in the machine at the start of the party (438!), and the child with the closest guess got a prize of Big League Chew (keeping with the theme). A few weeks before the event, Zianne requested a swimming party. As I said, I just go with the flow when it comes to kid birthday requests, so a swimming-gumball party it was. It was probably the last weekend of the season to swim comfortably in our pool, so it was pretty fun to make the most of it. Almost every kid swam and a bunch of the parents did too, so we had cannonballs in addition to the gumballs. It was a fun day celebrating our girl with friends and basking in the sunshine on the first day of fall. It's always sweet to host a gathering and see how God has slowly grown our community here, inch by inch. ... Read more