Saturday, July 5, 2008

The 3rd birthday party

When Emily turned one, I had myself convinced that we were going to do nothing more than just have some family over for cake and cookies. Nothing big, you know, just simple, sweet and to the point.

We ended up with at least 7 of Emily's "closest" friends...who were also around the one year old age...at the house with food, fun and MESS! Actually, it really was fun, just more work that I wanted to deal with for a one year old birthday. But that's what you do when it's your first child!

So when Emily turned two, I convinced myself...again...that there would only be TWO other kids invited (because that's what ALL the books tell you to do, invite only the same number of kids as the age of the birthday girl...by the way, does that mean when I turn 99, that I get to invite 99 people to my party???). But I digress...anyway, her two year old party turned out to be another busy day, with around 8 more TWO year olds, parents, friends, neighbors, etc...you get the picture. Still a fun day, just busy!

SO, when preparing for Emily's 3rd birthday, Brian and I debated back and forth about what to do. Keep it simple? Host it at a place like McDonalds or Chuck E. Cheese? Have it at the park? Again, we wanted something EASY, and we had convinced ourselves at one point that having it at the house would NOT accomplish that. So what did we do?

We had it at our house.

But we had a blast, and so did Emily and her friends. It was a sprinkler party, complete with big blow up pools, Elmo sprinklers, a bouncy castle (courtesy of Nana and Papa :), balloons, cake, bubbles, and PRESENTS!!! Emily woke up every morning for about 2 weeks before the party and would ask, "is it my happy birthday party yet?" It was priceless to see how excited she was about her special day, and she was SUCH a good girl! I had in my mind the terribly embarrassing scenario where MY kid is the one crying and throwing fits and not sharing at her own party. We seemed to escape that this year...I'll let you know what happens next year!!
The birthday girl!!
Toddler heaven
Watering the dead lawn
SUGAR!!!
A fun day for everyone

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