Lola's Ice Cream Party

This weekend we celebrated Lola's 4th birthday with an ice cream party.

Saturday morning we gathered with a group of Lola's little friends on our building's roof top for some ice cream themed fun. We had ice cream shaped popcorn treats, a popsicle pinata, an ice cream shaped birthday cake, ice cream cone party hats, and we made our own ice cream! So much fun.

We were so lucky to have the most gorgeous day for Lola's party. Look at that view over the bay! There was a football game on at Cal so we even had a blimp flying around the campus and overhead too. I like to think it was really there for Lola's birthday!

As always, the pinata was a huge hit with the kids. Pun intended! The kids all had a few turns at hitting it before Ava knocked it to the ground. It didn't break open at that point though so the kids continued hitting it on the ground until it was sufficiently ripped open. Then it was held up high by one of the parents and the goodies inside were tipped over the kids. I love the look of anticipation (and a little fear!) on their faces!

Making ice cream was even more popular than the pinata. Ice cream is always good, but it's even better when you get to make it yourself. The kids were each given a sandwich size ziplock bag containing half a cup of Half & Half (half milk, half cream for my friends in Australia), a tablespoon of sugar and half a tea spoon of vanilla essence. The bags were then put into a larger ziplock bag filled with ice and salt. The kids worked in pairs to shake the bag for about five minutes - or until they got tired of shaking and passed it over to an adult! After all that shaking the ingredients had frozen and "churned" into delicious vanilla ice cream. All that was needed was some chocolate topping and sprinkles. Yum!

The highlight of any birthday party is always the cake. No matter how much fun everything else is, the cake is always eagerly awaited. In keeping with the ice cream theme Lola's cake was a scoop of delicious strawberry ice cream in a vanilla waffle cone. Or, maybe a strawberry and vanilla cake shaped like an ice cream cone...

At the end of the party Lola gave her guests special ice cream themed party favors: cones topped with meringue and filled with jellybeans. More sugar!

Lola and her friends had so much fun at her ice cream party.

Big thanks to everyone who helped make Lola's day special.

P.S. I'll have some ice cream themed DIYs from the party coming soon. Stay tuned!