Le quatrième anniversaire
Or, Den fjerde fødselsdag. I suppose that’s more appropriate but I have a little French on the brain.
Either way, we celebrated Sara Ellen’s fourth birthday yesterday. It was an amazing party. Sara Ellen woke up to a decorate house. Emily made pancakes. Tim helped me make the icing, and then I decorated a cake. This was a first for me, really accomplishing a design. I was very pleased. Sara Ellen dressed as Minnie Mouse for Halloween and we used that as the party theme. Tim keeps telling me I did an amazing job. I did my best to come up with good ideas, mostly it came down to introducing activities at the right time and at others, allowing the friends to just play together.
I was a little nervous, this being the first child party I’ve planned, and it did get off to a slower start. My uncle was a tiny bit early arriving from Napa and then we waited at least a half hour for our friends to arrive. Once the kids arrived, with 5-10 minutes of eachother, it really got started.
First activity: Lunch of design-your-own tortilla pizzas. I had the “pretty pizza” recipe from Dr. Sears which we have used for dance girl game nights at my parents home. Everyone made these soon after arriving. They are very yummy and with many topping options, plenty of individual variations. When Sara Ellen and her first and only local (Silicon Valley) friend, Michaella were finished they began running up and down our play/living rooms saying “ruuun, ruuun!” The boys, Liam and Rohan, with Mommy friends Julie and Heather respectively played a little and ate their lunch. Then the kids all played together. It was a wonderfully intimate group. Michaella had never met the boys and they played so well together.
Second activity: To keep going, I had them do the scavenger hunt I’d laid out the night before. Each piece had a numbered card. I had them gather around and told them what number to search for. Sara Ellen loves scavenger hunts with her toy pie and doesn’t look terribly hard for the pieces, so I’d set everything out in plain sight. I gathered them together between each piece.
1 – Striped bag with one chocolate bell, balloon-printed blowers, and twisty straw. We had several unused packages of party items lying around that I used.
2 – Small apple juice box.
3 – Packet of crackers. I bought these and the juice boxes knowing we would use up the leftovers from the purchase.
4 – Wrapped box with Disney character coloring pages & crayons. Each cost $1 at Michael’s. The boys found those wrapped in cream tissue paper and the girls in magenta paper.
After unwrapping the boxes, I had the friends and Great Uncle Jere hand her their present. She got a fancy new microwave with extra food for her kitchen, Fancy Nancy game and picture/word card game, The Velveteen Rabbit and Build-A-Bear clothes (from Uncle Jere that I picked out). They loved the so much they insisted on more hunts and worked together to find Sara Ellen’s toy pie three times, jumping on Sara Ellen’s bed while waiting between each!
Third Activity: After the hunt I brought them into the dining room and they decorated foam ornaments with sparkly glue and sequins. I was impressed that they all sat for it.
Fourth Activity: I kept them at the table and we served the Minnie Mouse cake with them all in Mouse ears headbands. I added a dusty blue ribbon to Michaella’s which amazingly matched her outfit! Sara Ellen wore her sparkly ones, though she really wanted some just like her friends. Everyone enjoyed the cake, eating up the head/face and one slice of an ear. 
Then the kids played more together.
Fifth Activity: Jere had offered to bring his guitar! I was so excited. He plays for preschoolers regularly and loves it. At some point I think some kiddies were less happy and Tim encouraged Jere to bring on the music. I found them sitting together on the couch looking so cute. All the adults watched. Some of the kiddies new “Jingle Bells” and quietly sang along. They asked permission to dance and it was the most fun ever. They danced around eachother and crashed on purpose repeatedly into the couch. It was so sweet. After the music, everyone gathered themselves together and headed out en masse. It lasted about two and half hours. It turned out perfectly.
Sara Ellen played with her presents and then got to see her new, bigger bike from Nana and Papa. She road in the remaining light and then opened more presents from Helmses and Hegeman’s before dinner: some music, cute piggy bank, books, hand-knitted sweater, etc. After dinner I realized I’d forgotten some from Aunt Corri because it was too big for the shelved pile and hidden away in a closet. She was very excited about the Curious George stories by Margaret and H.A. Rey. She has been reading that and playing Fancy Nancy since. Today she received another goodie, a princess activity book from my dear friend Sara.
It was a truly incredible day. Now on to Christmas! Presents are all made or purchased. Just the tree is left to put up!
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