Y's Birthday Party

Y has finally reached an age where we thought was appropriate for her to have a few friends over for a birthday party.  Truth is, that was probably last year but since I had only recently given birth to Q, there was no way that was going to happen!

The worst part about Y's birthday is that if falls at the very beginning of September which is also when Labor Day occurs each year and then school begins right after that and the life of parents gets a lot more crazy!  So in dealing with those 2 events we decided to have Y's birthday party on August 25th.

Though we have a decent sized home, I didn't feel it was large enough to hold 12 children (including Y) and a parent of each child so we decided we would have the party in our garage which worked out perfectly since it was really a pool party and we planned to just walk them all over to the pool as the main event.

I was extremely nervous about the party as I'd never thrown a party for children before and because I have this annoying tendency to over-analyze everything.  Fortunately it turned out to be a beautiful, hot day - perfect for swimming - and the kids all really enjoyed themselves.

We went with a Princess & Knight theme so I bought each girl a tiara and made them a satin sash that said Princess followed by their name.  They then got to decorate their sash with all different types of jewels and stickers.  For the boys I bought them foam swords and made them shields from cardboard which I then spray painted silver - each shield was personalized with "Sir" followed by their name and they also got to decorate those.  Both were a big hit!

Unfortunately, I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked but that's what happens when you're in the middle of hosting a party!


The before photo, you sort of get the idea.

They started decorating their sashes and shields as they arrived and waiting for the others.

Nana B. made the cake, she did an awesome job!

Birthday Party

Earlier in the month, Y had the opportunity to attend a friend's birthday party.  It was actually the first really birthday party Y has ever attended.  While we have given her small little birthday parties with a few family members she has not yet had one where she got to invite friends and she hadn't really been invited to one either, mostly because in 2008 when Y was born all of our friends that live close and were pregnant were pregnant with boys.

When she received the invitation in the mail she was so excited to see that she had her own pieces of mail and even more excited to learn that she'd be going to a Princess birthday party.  She knows the days of the week and so when the final week came around she knew exactly how long she had until the party, and she spent that whole week telling me, "the princess birthday party is Wednesday" and then she would list all the days that remained between the current day and Wednesday.

She loved going to the store and picking out the present, I set a price range and then asked her what she'd like to get her (her answer was, princess stuff) so we went down the aisle and put a bunch of different princess items in the cart and then I told her she could choose which one she wanted to give, all the while making sure she knew it was a gift for the birthday girl and not for herself.  She seemed to grasp that pretty well, because not once did she ask to open it and play with it, in fact she kept asking me when I would wrap it!

She had a blast at the party!  They decorated pretty notebooks with their name and pretty foam stickers, they played with toys, ate lots of yummy food, and they were even given darling little tutus to wear which our lovely hostess made herself.  It was a blast and has given me a few ideas for Y's 4th birthday, we had previously decided that 4 would be a good age for a birthday party with friends!

B Turns 30!!!

Last Sunday, Dec. 12th, B turned 30!!  It's one of those birthday milestones which can be viewed as good and bad.  He was not looking forward to the day at all.  In fact most of our friends (outside of Michigan) have either turned 30 in 2010 or will turn 30 in 2011 and most all of us are viewing the same way...like it's a death march or something.  Honestly when I think about why it is so dreaded I can't logically come up with a valid reason.  All I can really say to justify it is that I remember when my mom turned 30, I was 9 years old and I remember thinking she was ancient.  Now that my mom is 50+ and I am approaching 30 it doesn't seem so old anymore but I guess the fear is that somewhere some 9 year old is thinking that I am now the ancient one.  I shudder at the thought.

But anyway, this post is about B and his birthday and not about my random ramblings about the animosity I feel towards a certain day which is still 9 months away (for me anyway).

One of the joys of having our new place is that it has so much more room.  In reality it is only about 600 sq ft larger but the fact that it is an open floor plan and the rooms are larger makes it seem so much more spacious.  And so I didn't fret when inviting 20+ friends and family members to come celebrate his birthday with us here.  The truth of the matter is that we invited far more than 20, but the bulk of the invitations went to family members which we knew, due to schedules and distance, wouldn't be able to make it.  We were originally expecting about 30 but some last minutes cancellations left us at 22 but that was more than enough!  It was pretty hard though because we would have loved to have invited more people but were uncertain of just how many people our place could hold comfortably.  I can now say that I definitely think we could potentially do 25-30 but more than 30 would be pushing it.  So we invited friends based on how many family members were going to attend and I think it worked out nicely.

Before the friends arrived we had B's birthday dinner which was of course pizza from his favorite pizzeria, Pizza Papalis.  If you live or are visiting the Detroit area it is a MUST have!  We had family visiting from Toronto and they have always heard us rave about it but had never tried it, and I don't think they were at all disappointed!  The only thing that was missing was the ambiance of eating at the actual restaurant, it is definitely part of the whole experience and it's best downtown when it is super busy.

At around 7pm we had friends start arriving, each of which was assigned to either bring something sweet or something savory/salty.  It was a Mexican theme and I myself made quesadillas, taquitos (store bought),  a con queso salsa, virgin Sangria, and brownies instead of birthday cake.  We also played some super fun games and spent a lot of time socializing.  It was really so much fun but I will say that I was extremely glad it was over!  Throwing a party can be really stressful.  I would love to say that I want to do it all over again in 9 months when I am turning 30 but I also realize that I will (if all continues to go well) have a newborn who could be anywhere between 2 weeks and 1 month old.  I'm not sure how much I'll feel like partying really...maybe a nice dinner or something.  Who knows, maybe we'll know more as the time gets closer!