Harrison's Birthday Party

Harrison's 4th birthday party will go down as one of my biggest failures as a mother. Talk about a disaster! The party was at the Tenafly Nature Center and the invitation stated it would take place Rain or Shine. It was a very warm August day, but it was POURING rain. I figured that since it would be held "Rain or Shine" that the party would be indoors. Since it was a hot summer day, we were in summer clothes (Reagan in a dress, me in flip-flops, etc). It was at 12:30, so I was already pushing Avery since she usually naps around 1:00.

Just the walk from our car to the pavillion got us very wet under our umbrella. Then we all walked to the indoor center for the program and we got wet again. All the other kids were dressed appropriately in rain coats and rain boots, having fun splashing in the rain. And there I was, carrying Avery & the diaper bag, holding Reagan's hand as well as the umbrella over the 3 of us.
Inside, there was a woman who showed the kids a few creatures, then it was another walk outside in the rain, back to the pavillion for lunch. By now, it was getting close to 2:00 and Avery was melting down. The walk back was horrible, as the rain was coming down so hard! I was carrying Avery, trying to hold the umbrella over all of us, but the rain was coming off the umbrella right onto Reagan! By the time we got to the pavillion, Reagan's dress was literally soaked!


Reagan was NOT happy about her very wet dress. It was so wet that she started getting cold, so I had to take it off of her. Being the horribly unprepared mother that I was, I had NO change of clothes with me. Luckily, Nicole let me put Mia's raincoat on Reagan so we could stay for lunch and cupcakes.

Reagan (in Mia's raincoat) eating her cupcake.

Amanda and Avery

Not the best video, but at least you can see the pouring rain. We couldn't believe how dark it was outside in the middle of the day.

By the time we left, I was so frazzled. Both girls were at their breaking points and so was I. It would have been a great party if I'd been better prepared ... all the other kids were having a great time! Looks like it's time to buy rain coats and rain boots for my girls!!!

Damian's Birthday Party

Today was Damian's Birthday party at a pretty cool place called Kidz Village in Kenilworth, NJ. Damian and I have a special bond ... okay, I'm reaching here, since the kid hardly knows who I am, but when he gets older and realizes how cool it is to share a birthday with me, I'm sure he'll think we have a special bond! Only really cool people were born on April 13th :)
Fabian and Melisa with their only son Damian ... Melisa is pregnant with a second boy and is due in July! Although I don't get to see Melisa very much for playdates anymore, at least I see her every month or two for bookclub. Fabian is Uruguayan (like Maribel's husband Marcelo), so they have been to the Uruguayan pizza place in Elizabeth were we went a few weeks ago ... I realize that's a bizarre thing to write in this post about Damian's birthday, but I thought it was a bizarre coincidence that someone else was familiar with this small little pizza place that is so far away!

This place was great ... it had a jungle gym play area, then several different rooms with unique themes. Reagan could have spent the entire day there, since there were so many things to do! The first room was a dance room, complete with a DVD going with ballet instruction and a whole basket of dress-up clothes. Too bad my pictures aren't better quality, but I only had my iPhone with me.

Reagan dancing ... or maybe she's just having fun looking at herself in the mirror!

There were lots of dress-up clothes for boys and girls and she found this mask laying around. she thought she was so funny when she put it on and posed for a picture!

This room was a mock-supermarket, so Reagan went shopping with her shopping cart, then checked out at the cash register ... here's Corey's son Matthew, trying to make the food item move on the conveyor belt (by pushing it instead!).

Corey and 10 month old Jamison who was trying desperately to climb out of the stroller (she's a climber, just like her older brother Matthew!)

Top Row: Jamison and Corey, Stacey and Ronni

Bottom Row: Matthew, Ethan and Justin

After the pizza and birthday cake, each child received a cup full of tokens to use on the video games. Reagan loved playing all of these and I thought she looked pretty cute on this snowmobile :)

Damian ~ the Birthday Boy!

Ethan's Birthday Party

Today was Ethan's birthday party at Kid's Clubhouse in Midland Park. He turned 3 years old, so of course, Reagan was my child who was invited ... but since Reagan was so sick, I decided to show up with Avery instead! Turned out that Mia was sick with a fever too, so Nicole just took Bennett ... she picked us up and we all went together.

Melisa (who just found out she's having another boy!), Stacey, Corey (holding Jamison), and Ronnie

James and Damian ~ Damian and I have the same birthday!

Grown up Bennett

Avery, Amanda and Bennett

Justin, Ethan (the birthday boy) and Matthew

Avery was pretty attached to me the entire play-time session, but when they announced it was time to eat pizza, she couldn't have cared less where I was! The kids were all holding hands, walking to the other room, so she held Bennett's hand and was determined to find food!

This picture cracks me up! She was determined to find the pizza as fast as she could ... I could have left the building and she wouldn't have noticed!

Pizza Time!

Ethan and Stacey

Avery decided the frosting on Bennett's plate looked very appealing ... before she touched her own cupcake, she put her finger in Bennett's several times, then used it as paint on her own plate. I guess she thought it was time to "finger paint!"

This picture hardly shows the real mess she made with the cupcake ...

Time for bubbles!

The birthday boy

Ethan and Matthew

Avery ... getting tired

Love these pictures of Avery! She was in this giant mat that was in the shape of a tube and we started playing "peek-a-boo"

I can't believe how big my baby is getting!!

It was a really fun party ... Thanks Stacey and Ethan! I wish Reagan could have been there :( Avery definitely tired herself out. She went down for a nap today at 1:30 and we had to wake her up for dinner at 5:00!

Brian's Birthday Party

This afternoon was Brian's birthday party ... Reagan goes to preschool at Ms. Lisa's with Brian and he's such a cute little boy. I'm still laughing about how dumb I was and I'd like to share the story so everyone can get a good laugh: The invitation said the party would be held at the Harrington Park Fire Station (they live in Harrington Park). I thought, "how cool! He's having a 'fireman' themed party!" So we told Reagan she should wear her fireman hat to the party. Just before we were leaving, we searched the house up and down for the hat, but couldn't find it! On the way to the party, she was sad she didn't have it, so I told her, "the firemen there will probably give you a new fire hat!" I had visions of firemen taking the kids on a tour of the fire station, letting them see and climb on the fire engines, etc. When we walked into the 2nd level of the fire station, I was shocked: it was a huge hall for entertaining!! I couldn't believe how big this place was and it finally occurred to me that it was a huge party with lots of adults, and not just a little kid party with a "fireman theme!" I was laughing at myself for being so stupid and clueless. But in my defense, I had never seen anything like this place ... I guess it's common in NJ for fire stations to have large spaces like these, but nothing like that exists in Utah (at least, not that I know of!). I've now been here for 4 1/2 years and I'm still learning new things all the time :)

Anyway, it was a really fun birthday party and I took a lot of great pictures ...

Here's the birthday boy Brian with his mom Gigi ... I'm SO bummed this picture turned out blurry because it would have been SO cute!

Ms. Lisa was there with her daughter Nicole

Helen and Amelia, another one of Reagan's friends from preschool

Amanda and Reagan

Gigi's aunt made these incredible cakes!

After everyone had a bite to eat, the entertainers that were hired started playing music and Reagan loosened up a little ...

The McElroy Family ~ Brian was lucky enough to have a very special guest at the party: his father Brian who is currently serving the military in Iraq. He left last summer and got to come home for 2 weeks. He won't be back home for another visit until this summer, so they were all very excited to see him. Brian's little sister is named Reagan and she's Avery's age!

Gigi hired someone to come entertain the kids and he was so great with them! He kept the kids busy and having fun for a solid hour. Most of the activities were SO simple, yet the kids were in heaven.

Reagan LOVES the parachute

... as you can see!

Balloons

What's with the tongue?

This one blew me away: he sprayed the kids with 7 rolls of toilet paper! What a cheap way to make kids go crazy :)

As you can see, he used some type of blower with a painting roller attached ... as soon as a roll was finished, his assistant would quickly replace it with a new roll.

And then, BUBBLEWRAP! He put two large pieces of bubble wrap down on the floor and the kids went nuts, jumping on it and popping all the bubbles.

Then the head guy made things out of balloons. Reagan got a heart, and then she saw all the boys playing with swords and wanted to join in ... luckily, the guy made her a sword too.

While the head guy was doing balloons, his assistant was doing face/hand painting. This was the first time Reagan had ever done anything like this. She chose to have balloons painted on her hand, vs. something on her face.

Then it was time for the pinata! Reagan gave it an impressive whack!

The birthday boy Brian

Helen and her 3 month old boy Reyhan (I'm not sure how to spell his name - her husband is from India, so it's an Indian name).

Blowing out the candles