Party in the U.S.A.

Finally, life is affording me a few moments to post O's birthday blow out! (It has been a non-
stop mad house around here since Saturday.) Excuses, excuses!

Anyhow... the party was a huge success. I think it was a ton of fun and even as the host, I didn't get too stressed out. That's success in my book!
O wanted a Snow White cake and, for the life of me, I couldn't find a bakery in town that would do Snow White decorations. Don't get me wrong, you can get a cake with ALL the princesses on it. Or for an extra $12 they'll *customize* your cake. But when your soon-to-be 4 year old requests a Snow White cake, you make a way. So I got the regular "cheaper" cake and bought my own *playwithitafteryourdone* Target check out toy of my own and stuck it on there! She looks so natural, right?!

These are a few pre-party shots. Turner refused to get in the picture (but imagine one more kid in stripes standing shoulder to shoulder making a goofy face) but here are the other two. Now, Quinn has begun doing this weird thing with his eyes when I say "smile" for a picture. And Olivia had been eating some *razzledazzlegagmewithaspoon* Fun Dip right before these photos. Lovely!

On our way to the party we picked up O's classmate, Lei'Asya and her cousin Le'Mont. (There's Quinn with the weird eye thing again.) Lei'Asya and Le'Mont were so excited to go to the party! And I take for granted the world we're in. On the way Le'Mont asked, "Now what's a YMCA?" I forget, since my kids practically live there, that others don't!

Well, they quickly figured out what the Y is and fit right in!

There were about 15 kids total. And the Y was the perfect place to have a party for a bunch of pre-schoolers! They were able to get their energy out (and then some.) We had friends from several realms of our life there. 5 of O's 6 classmates were there, church friends as well as work friends. It was so fun.

The kids played in the mat room as well as a play land that was right next door.

It was fun to see the kids play together, especially O and her classmates since I never get to witness that.

Then it was time for snacks and cake. A really fun thing about O's birthday being so close to Valentine's day is there are always lots and lots of pink options! And for my daughter, that's a plus!

The cake/singing was NOT my daughter's time to shine. She started crying when everyone sang (a bit odd for her) and there you can see my pointing finger (FOR SURE I was lecturing her on what she was suppose to do at that point... I need a holster for my two pointer fingers, seriously!)

At least this year Olivia thanked everyone for her gifts. She LOVED all of her presents and although I can't prove it with the pictures, she had a great time at her party. The only downside to the whole day was that the cake/snack/present portion of the day was held in the room where I have my spinning class. That's not the problem, they move all the bikes somewhere else and put up tables and chairs. What is the problem? The M&M's all over the floor that Turner found as we were cleaning up at the end of the party. If I told him once I told him 15 M&M's later, "Please, don't eat them off the ground... Mommy will give you clean ones!" You see, when you know what happens on that floor every morning and evening of the week during a spinning class and then you see your kid eat an M&M off of it, its enough to make you want to throw up in your mouth. Yeah, give me a hotel comforter ANY DAY OF THE WEEK compared to that!!!

Regardless, we all made it out of there alive, barf free, injury free and another party older! It was a fun day to celebrate Olivia and enjoy her friends!