Braelynn Turns 9! A Donut Birthday Party

Braelynn's 9th Birthday A Donut Birthday Party

Well – somehow we’ve arrived at (and now passed) our sweet girl’s 9th birthday! (It hardly seems real!)

While Braelynn’s birthDAY was on Thursday – we gathered everyone (well, as many as we could!) together on Friday for a DONUT themed birthday party! Even though we were missing about half of our normal party “attendees” – somehow Braelynn still received a mountain of gifts and everyone made her feel so loved and so special.
(Why were we missing so many people? Well, Uncle Steve was out of town, Aunt Emma is still recovering from her crazy bout with illness that she’s been fighting since Christmas, and Aunt Ellen was in the hospital as Braelynn’s brand new cousin was born ON Braelynn’s birthday – talk about an awesome birthday gift!! Birthdays from here on out only get bigger and better now that both Braelynn and baby Zoe share the SAME birthday!)

As usual, Aunt Ruby came over and helped decorate plus make Braelynn’s donut cake extra special. (I just made a regular cake in a bunt pan – and then we made a “drip” icing for the top – it was SO easy! I’m not sure if I’ll ever make buttercream again!) I also made “healthy” donuts to have as well (they were gluten/dairy/sugar free) – let me know if you what the recipe, they were really good!

Braelynn decided that she wanted to flip the script on the party and open her gifts first. I must admit, it felt REALLY strange doing the party that way, but it was fun to change things up and do something different!

If you’d like to look back at past Braelynn-Birthday-Parties, here are the posts I’ve written (apparently, I’ve really slacked off some years!)
Braelynn’s 8th Birthday: Dogs
Braelynn’s 7th Birthday: My Little Pony
Braelynn’s 5th Birthday: PAW Patrol
Braelynn’s 4th Birthday: Rapunzel (still my very favorite party ever)
Braelynn’s 1st Birthday Party

You know I can no longer just take photos – so click below to watch Braelynn’s 9th birthday FILM!

But, I still took photos too.
And I have to admit: I really struggled with this party. Normally, after taking all of my “detail” shots, I hand my camera off to my sister and I let her photograph the party as it unfolds. We are each other’s resident birthday party photographers. Since I trust her completely to take photos, that leaves me free to take videos and act as hostess for the party.
BUT, as I mentioned, Ellen wasn’t at the party – so that meant that I had to not only take the photos, but also take the videos, and also act as hostess. So, it was a lot.
We made the most out of it though!