The big decision this year was guest list. Last year, he'd just started preschool so we decided to go with some LLL friends, since they were the main ones who had invited him to parties thus far. This year, we had to choose from three groups: LLL, preschool, and the local meet-up group we've belonged to for 2.5 years. I decided to rule out LLL since there is such an age spread there and the kids closest to his age are mostly girls (I usually shy away from gender-stereotypes, but I wasn't sure how much fun they would have at a construction party based on the toys they usually bring to play with). With the preschool set, about half of his classmates are new so he doesn't really know them, a couple of the other ones aren't my favorite (sounds awful, but I got to know the kids working at the preschool last year...), and it just gets difficult inviting some but not others when that is all they have in common with other party goers. So in the end, I decided to go with the meet-up crew + Ethan's best friend from preschool since she is also a member of the meet-up group. That meant leaving out one preschool friend that we had wanted to invite, but he ended up going to the beach the week I did invitations anyway so it would have been too last minute by the time he got back. My main hesitancy in going with the meet-up group to start with was that I could not invite everyone I wanted to and still maintain my sanity, but in the end I just had to deal with leaving some friends out and hope they understand.
The invitation was not quite as involved as in years past, but I made it when I was 39 weeks pregnant and most of the time I had Ethan in my lap telling me, "That's a nice picture of an excavator you have, Mommy!" I used GIMP to create it, the same program I used for his first birthday party invitations, and it was much quicker going this time around. They don't look professional, but they're still cute and themed, so I was happy with them!
In years past, I've also done a banner. Each year, it's gotten less labor-intensive, and this year, I just stuck some construction-themed decals on the wall in the dining room. My in-laws got these for Ethan months ago, but I didn't have anywhere to put them and decided to save them for his party instead. It added some themed-interest to the house, but I certainly wouldn't have bought them for this purpose. They're still stuck on the wall as I write this so eventually I need to take them down and find a piece of plastic or something to stick them to so Ethan can have them to play with. No sense wasting them!
Once again, a simple spread this year. His party was at the same time as last year, but I just didn't have it in me to provide anything more than snacks. And since we've been to plenty of ending-at-lunch-time parties that only provided cake with no real food, I decided to be OK with that! So we had apples and grapes in a bowl and pretzels in the dump truck. I did make the cake, of course. Since I find myself not using carriers quite as much with Wesley as I did with Ethan, I did everything with him either asleep in my arms or nursing, so it was no small feat to make the cake! I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and everyone was raving about it. Probably because I put 1/2 cup of (decaf) coffee in the icing. Coffee makes everything better, especially chocolate!
My little construction worker!
We spent most of the party outside this year since it was a BEAUTIFUL day. Seriously, it's like Autumn decided to descend for 24 hours just for Ethan's party. I had a few construction-themed activities set up. I took his busted kiddie pool and put sand in it with mini-construction vehicles. This was a big hit! Then of course we had the rock box for more digging fun. I also had been saving cardboard boxes (made easier by the large number of Amazon shipments received in the week leading up to Ethan's birthday!) to be used as outdoor building blocks. These were put out on the lawn, and I don't think people really knew what they were for. Once I explained it to one mom, she and her son went over and had a lot of fun with them, but everyone else stuck with the sand pit and rock box. Oh well! And of course, the goats and the chickens were a big hit as always.
As for the last picture in this series? Well, that's my favorite picture from the entire day. It's Ethan and his best friend from preschool. They are so cute talking to each other and hugging on each other. Seriously, every time they see each other, even if it's just been 2 minutes since they parted, they give each other a hug, and they were constantly walking around holding hands or with their arms around each other. Adorable.
It was a wonderful day, full of fun, friends, and family! Wesley did wonderfully, sleeping for about the first hour and then nursing for a bit before being passed around by the grandparents for the remainder of the party. One of my friends was laughing at me at one point because I was walking around with Wesley nursing in the ring sling and still taking pictures =) There's no such thing as single-tasking when you're a mom of 2! Ethan seemed to have a great time, and that's all that really matters!
So there you have it! 3-year-old birthday party with a 1-month-old went off without a hitch! Thanks to the visiting grandparents, clean-up was a breeze, and I enjoyed having the last few slices of cake this week as a reward for my efforts. Now next year I'll have to plan a 1-year-old party and a 4-year-old party within a month. Thankfully I have 11 months until then!
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