When I informed parents to bring their kids' swimsuits for a "water fun" little did I know that we would be dealing with much more water than the slip n' slide and baby pools I had in mind. The sky opened up and it rained like a monsoon but guess what--we still had a GREAT time. We have the BEST friends who still showed up for our little girl's day--with their kids in tow. Love them.
Besides rain turned out to be the small glitch--and an empty gas tank (whoopsi) for the grill left Charm City Daddy cooking up turkey burgers and hot dogs in the kitchen instead. CCD and I agreed that of all of the parties we've had in our home it probably ranked as the second most fun of all time---with our first New Year's Eve party taking top honors. Both were simple, small and unpretentious with just the right mix of people.
Olivia is such a great little hostess too. She returned the "Happy Birthday" wishes to each and everyone that wished her a happy birthday--lol--it was everyone's birthday! At one point, during the rain storm, she invited all of the children ranging in age from 8 years to 19 months up to the third floor of our house which gets awesome acoustics for a full out screaming match and game of "tagyou'reit!" I shut that down after 5 minutes. Everyone complied but the birthday girl who was removed kicking and screaming.
It is nice to have experienced parents around as well--helping me relax about the rain issue and transition the children from activity to activity. A new friend of mine brought her 4 kids (ages 2-8) and it was awesome--like a built in party. I was so thankful and happy to see all of them--and they are such great, well-behaved--adorable kids. At one point, her two year-old son was actually talking to Olivia's cake, "Caillou, I love you! I love you Caillou!"
I could go on forever...here's the party in pictures!