The girl is 6!  Just like that!  I blinked and she became an amazingly creative, kind, funny and energetic kid!  Her dream birthday celebration this year involved penguins.

She told me that she wanted to have a penguin party where she could “slide down snow hills on her belly like a penguin.”  The “Blizzard of 2015” ensured that her dream would come true!

We had a lot of fun planning her party.  We learned all about penguins so that we could make fun games and spend the day pretending to be these flightless birds.  The biggest challenge was getting to the party, and we were sad that some of our friends couldn’t make it…but we wanted them to be safe and not risk the driving conditions.  It felt more like we were driving on a snowy country road rather than Roosevelt Road!

We had the party at Cantigny – Robert McCormick’s estate.   It’s one of our favorite places, and it was absolutely beautiful!

Surprisingly, a lot of our friends made it, and we had a terrific time.

We started inside where the kids all made “snow” globes:

We also played some games like “Scare the Skua”.  (Skuas are birds that eat penguin eggs and baby penguins).  I don’t have a great picture of the entire game, but there was a skua target above the Chinstrap Penguins.  The kids threw pom-poms at the skua and saved the day!

Leopard Seals also eat Penguins, so we played “Leopard Launch”.  This was a big hit because of the Penguin popper.  The kids knocked down leopard seals with balls “shot” out of the penguin.

It’s hard to protect baby penguins.  The kids raced while protecting their eggs (nerf footballs).  It turns out that the girl’s daddy was the best penguin.  He was the fastest waddler at the party (sadly, there is no photographic evidence – you will have to trust me on this)!

Have you ever wondered how tall an Emperor Penguin is?  Are you as tall as an Emperor Penguin?

We wanted to celebrate  penguins, but the girl wasn’t too excited about the idea of anchovy cupcakes, so we stuck with more traditional flavors…I think that they were a hit.

The perfect ending to a perfect penguin party… the “penguins” in their natural habitat!