Green Birthday Party

Today we celebrated my daughter's third birthday with some cake, ice cream and pizza at our house.   I had a great time.   My daughter, my son, their friends and all the adults had a good time as well I think.   Birthday parties are just fun events and they don't have to be too complicated for a three-year-old.

We started off today by phoning my mother, who was in the mountains, and all singing happy birthday to her.   My in-laws had just arrived so we had quite the chorus in the living room for her on the other end.    After that I stuck the children in front of the television so we could get everything ready for the party.   My daughter had, "helped" with the cake yesterday and it was sitting on the counter for when guests arrived.

We decided to have everyone spend time in the basement with the doors open to the back yard because the day was nice.   The children arrived and pretty much took care of themselves.   We had some neighbors and some friends from our school and everyone seemed to have a nice time socializing together.

Pizza arrived, which was eaten quickly as the party started at noon.   After that, more playing was had and then we all went upstairs for the lighting of the cake and singing of the birthday song for the second time that day.    My daughter almost set fire to her hair but fortunately just missed as she successfully got all three candles blown out.  

My daughter wanted green and lots of green so my husband made her a wild safari cake and dyed the white cake inside green.   He made the icing himself and put animals all over the top.   It looked great.   It tasted greater.   (That's not correct, I know.)

After the guests had left and in the lull before dinner we opened some presents.   We had requested no presents (something that's popular to do now) but many times people bring a gift—I have been guilty of this in the past myself.    My daughter got two books we read tonight, a picture bingo game that's going to be a lot of fun to play and some magnetic geometric shape builder things from my in-laws among the presents.

Her actual birthday is Tuesday.  We plan on having a small celebration with my parents, who are coming to town for a few days.    We'll give her our gift then, which is another book with a lady bug that moves through the pages.  

It's been a great day all around and I think my daughter had a very happy birthday party day indeed.

The Big Boy Update:   As I was leaving with my neighbor to help walk her four daughters home, my son wanted to follow us.   We sent him back after he sadly told us he wanted to come and babysit Gigi (who is three).   My neighbor's five-year-old daughter leaned over and told me in a whisper, "I'll tell you a secret: I think Gigi has a crush on him too."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Today was my daughter's "Green" (as in color) third birthday party.   She had some of her closest children friends from her school and neighborhood.   We asked her who she wanted to invite and we weren't at all surprised with whom she picked.

Fitness Update:  Three very quick miles while the last of the party guests were leaving.   I helped my neighbor walk her four girls home and then she and I ran out a mile-and-a-half and then back before she had to head to the airport.