I Finally Did It!

Noah has always enjoyed his birthday parties, but they tend to end up being more for the adults than for the kids. His first birthday we had an outdoor picnic. I think everyone had a good time, but Noah fell asleep half way into the party. His second birthday was an oyster roast complete with fireworks. Once again, more for the adults than the kids. His third birthday we took a group of his friends to see Charlotte's Web at the theater and then to the park for cupcakes and presents. He enjoyed this, but our timing was off and because he missed his nap, was very grumpy. Last year we had a small family gathering at our house and that seemed to work well but wasn't anything spectacular.
I almost killed myself in the process, but this year I finally scored a hit with Noah's Birthday Party. He said he wanted a "Friend Party", so I planned an open house day Friday where kids could come over and play from 2:00 until 8:00. Okay, so maybe a six hour party was a bit much, but everyone sure did have fun. I think in total we ended up having about forty people over. I had lots of games planned for the kids. They had a silly string fight, made s'mores, ate snow cones, popped balloons, played on the swing set, shot confetti fireworks, jumped on the trampoline, dug in the dirt, hunted for hidden treasure, played charades, decorated cupcakes, performed on instruments, (drums, guitar, keyboard, violin, flute, saxophone, trumpet, and kazoo) and ate more hot dogs than I can count. Hopefully I will soon be able to post some pictures of the event.
Noah was so excited about his party and has talked about it constantly since Friday. He is already planning next year's party to be more of the same, but I sure am glad that I have a year to recover before attempting it again.
The best part? I had planned a Rainbow Vacuum cleaner demonstration that same weekend, so when the salesman came to demonstrate, he cleaned up all the spills from the party!