Our Beautifully Ordinary Life

I agonized over what we would do for her third birthday party. How big? How elaborate? How many people? Where should we have it? What should the theme be? And so on and so on and so on. In fact, I agonized over it so long that I ran out of time to actually plan it.

So, in the absence of a better plan, on the Friday prior to the actual date we did a daycare party. I threw together a quick Sesame Street theme, ordered a (cupcake) cake, and J and I took a few hours from work off to go distribute cupcakes and pour juice.

The cake was cool. I think I want one for MY birthday. Half vanilla – half chocolate – and plenty of red food coloring.

It was a hit.

Just goes to show that for a successful party you really only need good company and lots of sugar – the bouncy castle and pony rides are clearly superfluous. The kids were thrilled with the Elmo plates! And the cupcakes! And the red juice! Apparently they talked about it all day long (and then some). They also took great pleasure in seeing who could smear the frosting from bow to stern the fastest. I so wish I could show you all the pictures and video because they were hysterical but I don’t want to post them without parents’ permission so I won’t.

And let me tell you, having a successful daycare party took a load off of me. I know I’ll have to suck it up at some point but I really didn’t want to this year when she still doesn’t quite get the whole birthday thing anyway. This left us free to just enjoy her birthday the (relatively) low stress way.

With presents:

I’ll spare you the 500 other photos showing (virtually) a time lapse sequence of the wrapping paper massacre that followed. You’re welcome.

Then a trip to the museum with Isabelle and family:

There was much joyful (and probably annoying to others) running. But since it was her birthday AND we were at a kid’s museum we let them have at it.

We did have a small mishap involving new shoes and a blister so J got tasked with tracking down a band-aid while I pocketed the offending shoes. While he filled out an incident report (mentally cursing me the whole time, I’m sure) and assured them we did not need additional medical attention I magically mama-produced a whole new pair of non-matching shoes. Being that he was the one who came back with a Scooby-Doo band-aid he, however, garnered all the glory.

Once the mangled limb tiny blister was treated our nature walk continued.

See, the daddies still getting all the lovin’. Not that the mamas minded a little time to chat. Nope, not at all.

After a little more Daddy playtime…

and some educational artwork…

it was time to say goodbye after a quick spin on the garden statuary.

We’d hoped to end the day with a lazy dinner and a trip to Build-a-Bear except life intervened and we ended up with a horrible dinner at a new Mongolian Grill (blech – non-authentic, overpriced, and horrid wait staff), a not quite open yet new B-a-B store. and J having to change some ladies’ flat tire on the side of the road because no one else would help them. Ava and I plopped down on a bench to observe the goings on.

He’s a good role model, I think. And it made him swear that she will learn how to change her own flat tire so as not to be stranded and helpless as these ladies were.

I think we might wait ’til she’s 4 to teach her that, though.

Mind you, in between all the gallivanting around there was also more cake, more gifts from friends and neighbors, and more birthday love than she’ll ever know. All in all, I think she had a pretty good birthday. I hope it will always be a happy day for her. I know it is for us.

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