Hello! Hey, it’s Me.

Happy Birthday to Delaney (again)

Today we had Delaney’s “real” birthday party. We survived our first “kid” party and we had a great time! We had 3 other 3-year-olds in attendance. Unfortunately three of our friends had to cancel at the last minute due to illness and one didn’t show up. It was quite a successful party! We had a WILD time with our wild-animal theme!

First, we limited the guest list to ONLY kids that were within a few months of her age. It meant that we couldn’t invite everyone we wanted to, but it kept things very sane! Two of our friends had younger siblings who also attended, but we expected (and welcomed) them.

Secondly, we asked for “no gifts PLEASE” but for everyone to instead bring a wrapped book for a book swap. We numbered each book, each kid drew a number, and they opened that book. I just knew I couldn’t expect a hoard of three-year-olds to exercise such an unexpected amount of self-control, so they all got to open their “gifts” together. Plus, Delaney is a very loved and provided-for child, so we needed NO more toys! The book swap worked great and I think we’ll employ this little practice at every birthday party from here on out!

Thirdly, I had “planned” activities - as much as one can plan with a gaggle of three-year- olds! We ordered three “activity” items from Oriental Trading Company (so much for staying “China-free!”) and it worked great! I ordered some wipe-off coloring place mats, an animal magnet craft kit, and some temporary tattoos to keep them occupied. I also took some of the toys that are generally in our family room and moved them upstairs for the big event. There were still toys down there, but just not as many, so less to clutter the floor and less to pick up.

Fourthly, we watched the clock and moved on to the cake BEFORE they got antsy. Then we moved right from the cake to the book swap, so they didn’t have to stick with one activity for too long.

And fifthly, we didn’t make this a “family” party. My parents were there to help out a bit - they kept an eye on Colin for a while and helped us get ready. But other grandparents/aunts/uncles weren’t there, so the crowd was uniform.

WHY all this planning, you ask?? Well, Chris and I have this thing about kids’ parties that are boring. Yes, boring…the kind of party in which mostly adults attend, everyone in the family is there, and the kids are wild because there are no activities; these are also the parties where you mingle a bit, but you are always waiting for the next thing and no one seems to be moving toward the cake, gifts, games…whatever is coming next. I wasn’t militant about our “schedule,” but the kids had activities, the moms (and Chris) had good conversation, and we weren’t sitting around twiddling our thumbs waiting for the next thing to happen.

Anyhoo…on to the fun stuff…the photos!

Here’s Madrid working hard on her zebra magnets. Delaney made a lion with a foot for a nose, but it was fun!

Madrid’s finished magnet and her tattoo.

We made strawberry daiquiris for the children (sans alcohol, of course), and they thought they were GREAT! This was an “OH SHIT” moment when Chris and I realized we didn’t have any juice! We did have daiquiri mix and ice, so we whipped up a slushy treat, loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup and with NO nutritional value! Yum!

Here’s Ethan enjoying his…almost more than the cake. (Notice that Ethan had already polished off his cake. When he asked for more and was politely turned-down, Delaney emphatically said “Yes, he needs more cake!” She had his back, bro.)

Here are brothers Aiden and Liam showing off their monkey tattoos

I made Delaney’s cake from scratch this year, and Chris iced it as usual. Delaney chose pinked, which totally and completely did not match the zoo animals!

More blowing out candles - she really had it down this year.

(OK, I’m completely ticked off and I can’t get the video to load - sorry! If you need a fix, you can check out the video in this post.)

Even little Sophia, our youngest attendee, didn’t want to be left out as she took a fist-full of mommy’s icing and shoved it into her mouth!

Oriental Trading Company also provided us with awesome treat bags for each kid:

From left to right: A zoo kaleidescope, monkey tattoos, foam animal masks, little animal figures, banana lollipops, stickers and animal mugs.

Here’s Colin modeling one of the zebra foam masks

Thanks to everyone who attended; your presence made this party a complete success! We hope those of you who are still under the weather recover soon. We missed you!