The Carstens: Abby's "Friend" Birthday Party

When Abby turned one we had a big blow-out party with friends and family and had a blast of a time. When Abby turned two we decided to only have a family gathering to celebrate. We didn't want another ginormous party as we wanted the party in our house and didn't have much room to accommodate a big group. This year, as Abby turned three I found myself really wanting her to have a friend birthday party as well as a family one. She's old enough that she understands going places and seeing her friends and I wanted her to experience her friends celebrating 'her' in their own special way. So I went about figuring out where to host a little person's party. Oh, my goodness. I had NO idea how expensive different places could be! I really had my heart set on having her part at Mid-Columbia Cheer Gym (basically an indoor activity center with a bounce house, trampoline, roller coaster rides, play houses, etc) but Nate quickly nixed the idea when he found our her party would start at $185 and that didn't include cake or beverages. After hemming hawing for a while I eventually decided to just invite everyone over to our house for a birthday playdate and pray that our small house could entertain everyone without incident.

God smiled down on me on the day of her party as our 20*F weather melted away and was replaced with 55*F and sunshine. Glorious sunshine!

The party itself was a huge hit (if I do say so myself). There were around 11 Moms and 18 kids and room for all once we opened up the backyard for some spring playtime. I opened up the sandbox for the first time since closing it last fall, brought out the bubbles and bikes, and made sure the slide was free of water. For the first hour kids went back and forth between playing outside or inside in the living room or Abby's room. Around 10am the snack munchies came on and kids feasted on goldfish crackers, raisins, cheese sticks, apple slices, and juice. Then they got their first sugar high by frosting and sprinkling sugar cookies. The cookies were such a hit that even the Moms were gobbling them down. :-)

Once that activity seemed to be running down I brought out the second sugar high for the kids. Cupcakes! I thought it'd be fun for everyone to have a chance to blow out candles so each cupcake had a small candle in it, while Abby's had her "3" candle. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and Abby had the sweetest smile on her face knowing that they were singing for her.

After the cupcakes were consumed the kids went back to playing and the Moms went back to chatting. I think I timed everything really well because about 20 minutes later the first kid started to melt down signalling lunch-time. I purposefully planned our playdate from 9-11am so that I would NOT have to supply lunch. :-) Feeding 30+ people in my home with food allergies, different levels of sitting abilities, and lack of table space just seemed like a frustration experience waiting to happen. Thankfully Abby's/my friends were very understanding of this!

Finally, at 11:45am (because you know we have to drag out our playdates just a bit due to great conversation!) the last partygoers left. While Abby ate lunch I picked up the house and less than an hour later we were back in clean business!

Thank you to everyone who made Abby's friend birthday party such a wonderful time for her. She's still talking about her friends coming over and eating lots of cookies and cupcakes. :-) We also opened her gifts and she was so excited with what she received (thank you notes coming shortly - but y'all seriously make this a fun endeavor of determining who gave what with very few "from" cards!:-)) and tried to play with multiple things at once.

Thank you so much for all the love you showed Abby today!