You should see my house. The party ended at 11:30 this morning, but I still haven’t gotten up the energy to actually straighten things up. I did manage to clean up food items so we won’t have any more ant trouble, but there are toys coating the living room floor. I can’t tell if there is a floor anymore. I’ll have to do something about that… eventually.
Mess aside, the party was fun. I kept it informal because, quite frankly, a three year old and one year old just don’t need a huge shindig. We invited over three ladies and their children. One was my friend Wendy who has a three year old (Emma) and a 10 week old (Reagan), one was my friend Julie who has a 2 1/2 year old (Abigail), and one was my friend Kelsey who has a 3 year old (Emma) and a 1 1/2 year old (Evan). I figured that gave Alexis three guests and Branwen two. 🙂 Unfortunately, Evan was sick, so I told Kelsey to drop her Emma off and we’d watch her so she could enjoy the party, too.
The kids seemed to have a good time even though I didn’t have moon bounces, planned games, or even party hats and balloons (both of which I would have kind-of liked to do, but I was trying to keep the budget down). I made brownies (actually, Joel made them last night while I took care of some cleaning) instead of a cake because I figured it might be easier for little hands and they’d all enjoy it. We did stick candles in them before they were cut and let everyone sing “Happy Birthday”. I let all of the little girls blow out the candles together. They seemed to like that. 🙂 I did little party favor bags, too, so they had something to take home.
I had told people not to bring gifts, but they brought them anyway. 🙂 Typical. Our friends are just too nice. 🙂 Alexis and Branwen both enjoyed opening their gifts. The biggest hit was an inexpensive toy cell phone that Wendy picked up for Alexis. The tea set she got for both of the girls was a big hit, too. The two Emmas and Alexis sat down and had a tea party at one point, and one of them insisted that they say grace first so they all sang the little song they learned in Sunday School. I wished I had my video camera out for that one!
Branwen had the most fun when I turned some music on and she could dance. 🙂 The excitement of the day seemed to wear her out, though. She ended up in my arms near the end of the party, just resting her head on my shoulder. Sweet girl.
Anyway, the party was a hit. When Kelsey came to pick up her daughter, Emma didn’t want to leave. 🙂 As much as I don’t like to see a 3 year old cry, it made me happy to know she’d had a good time. 🙂
Time to go to bed. Tomorrow is Joel’s birthday, so there will be more cake and gift opening then. Alexis is really looking forward to it. 🙂