Live and Learn

Today was Matthew's birthday party. A party comprised entirely of small children. Yep, just me, Rob, and six kids. Recipe for disaster??? Nope. Just the right ingredients for an afternoon of fun.

The theme for the party was SpongeBob Squarepants. Matthew is an avid fan and we check out the DVD's and tapes regularly from the library (we don't have TV, we just do videos.) Mommy also thought that Spongebob would be an easy theme, seeing how you can't really mess up a rectangular cake :) We invited seven children and four agreed to come. With our two, that makes six. Ben didn't really join in the festivities and I had planned to have him nap, but Rob thought that would be cruel, so he sort of joined us.

The children arrived at 12:30 promptly (thank you, Michelle and Rachael) and their parents ran away screaming, "I'm free!" or something like that. We started off with a lollipop hunt in the backyard. I gave each child an empty treat bag (with Spongebob on it) and they looked for the 30 Dum-Dums scattered in the grass. Seeing as they ranged in age from just turned 2 to 4 1/2, I didn't make it very difficult. The winner (Angela, our only girl attendee) received a special lollipop and the rest were equally divided among the children. Next, we played a toss game. Now, this game didn't quite go as planned. I did not take into account the fact that the under five crowd can't throw very well, so we adapted my game a bit so that everyone was a winner. Rob cut out a board to look like Spongbob and I painted it yellow (again...easy theme). We'll finish it off later for a future party.

We attempted to play Duck, Duck, Goose, but the only one who fully understood it was Angela, so that ended pretty quickly. I let them run around for a bit, and then Rob settled them down at the table for a story. He read "A Very Veggie Birthday" which was written by his dad's cousin. While he calmed the natives, I ran inside to grab the cake and lemonade. Oh, in the table pic, Matthew was supposed to sit in the special chair, but he didn't want to, so Angela sat there. I guess every girl is a princess... :)

Taking the advice of "What to Expect in the Toddler Years" I served very small pieces of cake and small amounts of lemonade and then gave seconds (and thirds) to any takers. Almost everyone managed to spill their lemonade at least once (our yard is not level) but they had a good time. Since we were ahead of schedule, I let them run around the backyard for a few minutes, getting all of them completely dirty in the process. Then it was time to go inside for presents.

Rob had abandoned me at this point (he needed a little break) so I corralled the kids inside. They settled themselves on the couches and we handed out their Spongbob blowers while Matthew opened his gifts. He received two puzzles from Devin and Daniel and some outside toys from Angela and David. We gave him another Little Einsteins DVD (gotta love those Disney Reward dollars!) and then they watched (you guessed it) Spongebob. At this point, Ben did go down for a nap, Daniel wanted to be read to, David and Devin ripped into a sucker, Angela protected her blower from Matthew hitting it, and Rob took a nap. All children were picked up promptly at two (thank you again, Michelle and Rachael) and Rob and I collapsed. It was a fun party and we'll do it again....when he turns five.

After everyone left, Matthew said, "Oh no! I didn't thank my friends!" And then he ate all the candy in his bag while Rob slept on the couch and I was in here blogging. Hmmm.....anyone want him tonight????