London is Light

My lovely little London turned 6 last month, and she wanted a Moana Pool Party...

My grandma made the beautiful flowers, and everyone ate Hawaiian pulled pork sandwiches, tropical fruit salad, and heart of Te-Fiti sugar cookies. I made this creamy watermelon coconut juice, and pineapple infused water, too!

London and I made her pinata together in the days before her party, which was so so fun! We had a plain, round pinata that we decorated like a kakamora (the coconut pirates from the movie), with tissue paper and mod podge. 

London did such a good job!

The pinata may or may not have ended up on the ground halfway through the kids tying to break it open, and there is a slight chance Kyle ended up dumping the candy out by hand, but they all loved it anyway.

I had this kind of crazy idea to surround the fence all the way around the pool with palm fronds. And naturally, I asked the only person I know who would've agreed to do it: my dad. In a truly Laythe-Hartwell-kind-of-way, he knocked on a complete stranger's door and asked them if he could trim their palm trees for free. I'm pretty sure they thought he was insane, but they said yes anyway, and my dad showed up to the party with a truck-load of palm fronds.

London wanted a vanilla cake this year, so I spruced it up a little bit with marshmallow frosting I shaped like little ombre waves.




In these pictures, London is saying, "Oh my gosh, I LOVE THIS!" or "This is EXACTLY what I've always wanted!" We'll just call these her facials...

For her present from us, I picked out a wooden doll house and my dad had it built for her. I stayed up til midnight all week, paining and mod podging floors and wallpaper, until it was just right. 

My midnight shenanigans... 

It was SO sweet to see her face!

After we said goodbye to all of her darling friends, Kyle and I took London on a special date downtown. Isn't she just the cutest six-year-old ever?

London is light. She is endlessly obedient, helpful, observant, tender, and loving. She cares deeply about making us proud and doing the right thing in every situation. She's an insanely talented artist, who sketches, paints, and colors at all hours of the day. I'm not sure how it happened, but I blinked and my baby has legs three feet long and goes to first grade. 

I hope she felt as special as she is to me on her 6th birthday!