Abby's Family Birthday Party

We ended this week of holiday festivities with a family birthday party for Abby's third birthday. I know that Abby had a blast but I had so much fun, too! All in all we had my parents, Nate's parents, Nate's Aunt and Uncle, Katie, Bo, and Haylee, Andrew, Jessica, and Alex, and my cousin Mary Patricia. Mary P was a very welcome surprise! She lives in the Portland, OR area but came up to the Tri-Cities to support her friends who were participating in a Strong Man competition this weekend. When she found out Abby was having a party she awesomely asked if she could join in and celebrate with us. It meant so much to me that she took time away from her friends to spend the evening with family. That girl has great priorities!

We started the birthday party day by opening up a present from Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Libby who were unable to make the trip up.

Similar to Abby's friend birthday party, we basically just hung around and chatted until it was time for dinner. We had a bit of excitement as Nate went to turn on the propane to cook the hamburgers and hot dogs and found the tank completely empty. Whoops! Guess we forgot to check that. :-) But a quick trip to the store and we were back in business.

The "Girls" and Alex, working his charm.

The "Boys" with Nate and Andrew outside and Uncle Paul just behind David. It just struck me as typically funny how men and women, without prompting, tend to segregate into their own respective areas.

I must say I love how relaxed and down-to-earth our families are. When food was cooking people snacked and chatted, as food was ready people ate, kids played and ate and ate and played. There was no need for ceremony or anxiety when things didn't go as planned. We just smoothly went from one activity to the next. It's so nice to just BE with people instead of orchestrating them. 

After dinner, and before cake and ice cream, the kids played with the balloons. I love how, even with the difference in ages (Haylee- 7, Abby - 3, Alex- not quite 2) they still had fun with each other.

After dinner we had cake and ice cream and I was reminded once again that Pinterest ideas are fun to look at but impossible to replicate. :-) And I have to tell on myself with the cake. Things were at a crazy hectic point and I unthinkingly mixed the cake batter and put it in the oven to bake. I then went about frying bacon, turning on the dishwasher, having Abby help me stir the baked beans, fixed Abby's lunch, and had the television and radio blaring. When the cake beeped done I checked on it to find the outside a too-golden brown and the inside still raw. Hmm. Another five minutes and the outside was browner and the inside still raw...sigh. I KNOW not to bake cakes while it's loud. You'd think after all these years I'd remember that. :-) Thankfully, a quick trip to the store and a quiet, napping house fixed our cake dilemma.  

My Pinterest inspired cake!

As soon as we started singing "Happy Birthday" she got the sweetest smile on her face and put her head down in shyness.

She's currently going through a period where she's afraid to blow out candles by herself. Add in the hands over the ears to ward off loud sounds (we've had too many smoke detectors require new batteries lately and beeping loudly to let us know it) and you've got a funny picture.

So proud of herself now that the candle is out.

Next came time to open presents. Here's where I need to ask my fellow parents if it's pretty typical to have a child race through opening gift after gift and throwing a fit when you request that she say "thank you" to the person who gave the gift before rushing to the next present to open? On the one hand I keep telling myself that she's three and still learning manners, that she was overly tired and stimulated, and that my expectations were too high. On the other hand I tell myself that she's a big girl now and that manners are expected. What do you think? Normal or something we need to work on?

All three kids got in on the present action.

About this time the kids found the bubble wand and were happily making bubbles in the bathroom (one of the few non-adult rooms in the house) and us adults were happily chatting. Soon those happy giggles turned to squeals of delight and Jessica went to investigate when Alex came out of the bathroom with his pants soaking wet. Our silly kids had found that blowing all those bubbles had made the floors slick and had started throwing bubble solution directly on the floor to make for an indoor sliding rink.

Slipping and sliding around.

Unfortunately, not long after this picture was taken Abby took a big tumble and fell on something (Haylee wasn't sure what as there were a few things on the floor) and got a huge road rash and a nasty bruise. It's all fun and games until your kid gets hurt. So that ended the bathroom slip-n-slide.

That incident also ended the party. After kissing boo-boos and making Abby feel better we looked up and it was 8:30pm. Half an hour past the kid's bedtime. With hugs goodbye we soon had our guests gone and put our not-so-little-girl-anymore to bed. Girlfriend passed out! And with that...our girl had officially celebrated her third birthday. Happy birthday, Abby!