The One with all the Friends

Hudson's biggest birthday request fulfilled- a lion cake!

Today was the "friend" birthday party for my kids. We had a circus themed party complete with carnival type games (i.e. knock the cans, football throw, face painting), circus food (i.e. hotdogs, nachos and popcorn) and a bounce house in the backyard. I got most of my ideas and supplies from my good friend Ashlie who lives in Houston. I've been praying for sunshine all week and we did have beautiful weather! Still, I had to tailor most of her plans from a May birthday party for her little girl which was held outdoors, to a December party (with unpredictable weather) for my kids-- spread all over my house! We cleaned out the guestroom of all furniture and put all the games ball related/sports in there. Our sunroom held the fishing game and face painting, my living room was an art station for decorating treat bags and my kitchen became the concession stand. Thankful for the nice weather, the bounce house was a hit outdoors! And we could cook the hotdogs right!I'm speaking purely for myself here and not any other mother or father who happened to be there, but I had a blast! Hudson was so happy. Avery was right in the middle of everything. The idea was for the kids to "pay" a ticket, play the game and then get a treat. It was slightly organized chaos, but best I could tell, games were played, treats were delivered and kids were happy! We enlisted several youth group students to man the booths and their help was tremendous. My parents and my sister, Emily and her boyfriend, Thomas were here to help, too which was great. This was the first time, (I realize Hudson has only had three birthdays, but still,) it the first time that he made the guestlist. So some of my friends got left off because he wasn't especially close to their kids. :( I guess that's how it should be- it is afterall, his party! And still somehow, my party idea for about 10 kids, turned into 20 kids but we managed. It was really, really fun. Hudson acted like such a big boy, running off to play games with his friends. It was great. I never get all the pictures I want. Some things are just too hard to capture. And when you're busy enjoying it, it's hard to remember to stop and take pictures. We have a lot of pictures of Avery from her family party last weekend and we'll have all the family next weekend for Hudson's so I'll hopefully get good pictures then, too. So long as the birthdays are well documented, the moment is captured. Can you tell I'm crazy about birthdays?!

We didn't open the presents during the party. My good friend Amy gave me that brilliant idea. I hope we didn't offend anyone who thought we didn't care enough about the present they brought to even open it in front of them, but it was way less stressful/chaotic on my kids and their mama :) to wait. All of the kids were playing so well that we didn't want to interrupt to make them sit still and watch someone else open presents, which is rather hard at the ripe old age of 3! They had a great time opening and I wrote everything down to send thorough thank you notes! At least my children aren't spoiled. :)

Well it was fun but I'm glad it's behind me. NOW, I can get ready for Christmas!!

He's a big three year old stinker boy, but he's my baby! I still just wanna eat him up! Here he's singing a song ending with I love YOU! (yes, you can awwww outloud!)