We doubled up today. Two girls, one party. 3 and 6! Wayne and I agreed that this was low key for us. It also seemed kinder to invite families to one party versus two in one week, especially when multiple sibs are friends of both girls. We also invited adults to come if they wanted to, to hang out and visit. All this was accomplished in a nice way.
The morning was dedicated to getting the house ready. We still hadn’t recovered from our fridge breaking on Wednesday. It was so tempting to spend time on projects unfinished versus focusing on the party. I got a little panicked at the last minute for food prep, but life worked out.
The center pieces of the party were fun cupcakes Wayne ordered from cupcake royale and a bouquet of balloons.
We actually go the girls to take a reasonable nap before the party started. At one point in the morning, Laura went in her room, closed the door and announced she had napped so the guests needed to show up.
We had a wide time window for the party, 3-6pm, for late nappers. The party began slowly with Carly arriving first. It had been since late summer since these two preschool buddies had been together. There was quick giggling. Distance makes getting these two together a little more difficult. Sara had drawn over 20 pieces of art for Carly which we had been collecting over the past 3 months.
Emma June and her parents arrived next. This was a highlight of the party for me. For awhile, it was just the 4 of us adults as people arrived slowly. We got to hang out and talk. I sat on the kitchen counters with Julia and shot the breeze.
Business and noise level increased. Greta came (our 9yo friend) and helped wrangled kidlets. I think this helped me have a more fun time at the party. At the party’s height, we had 25 people with 13 being kids.
Present opening happened. Wayne was ring master for that. Despite doing every other present opening, Laura got upset. It was kind of a no brainer given the circumstances and she’s only 3. It gave me nice opportunity to snuggle and sing “All God’s Creatures Have a Place in the Choir” to her and Jane.
Later in the evening, the girls both expressed the joy of having “friends who give us cool horse gifts.” Most of the gifts had a horse theme. They now have a herd of stuffed horses with a sizable subset of unicorns. The herd has been running wild and enjoying itself. Sara and Carly played with Laura’s stamp set and Sara let Laura sleep with a beloved stuff horse. They’re good at sharing once the pressure is off.
We had so many kids, we didn’t have enough chairs. We had to improvise. The cupcakes were a hit. Wayne and Jon enjoyed salted caramel cupcakes. The cutest picture was the twins sharing a chair. We had just enough cupcakes left over to share with our sick neighbors the next day.
Older Lucy became a ring leader and lead the whole group of older kids around as Skog monsters under blankets from the bed. Younger Lucy had the cutest tongue moves of the group.
It was truly a lovely day. Folks filed out into the cold rainy night. Libby and Carly hung out. We extended the adhoc playdate with Pagliacci pizza while we visited and slowly cleaned up. All the food got eaten which made me feel good as a hostess.
Grandma called and sang happy birthday.
At the end of the night, after prayers, I asked the girls if they’d had a good birthday, they both yelled, “Yeah!” in unison.
Party exhausting…yes. Party worthwhile, yes.