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Birthday party debrief

Today we held Amanda's 3rd birthday party. We had a good time, despite the fact that I am incapable of being a relaxed hostess, and worry way too much about everything. We ended up just having one family from Amanda's preschool class over---we were supposed to have two families, but I didn't get around to inviting the second family until they had already made plans for the weekend... oops. Actually, it was just as well that we had fewer people, since I don't know where we would have sat if there had been more of us.

They came over at about 11:30, we ate (hamburgers and hot dogs, chips, carrots and apples). It is amazing that the kids will sit still for so much longer when there are other people at the table amusing them. Then we went outside and played for a while with foam airplanes, big soft frisbees and water balloons---the water balloons were regular size ones that Eleanor filled up with water as far as she could in the sink, meaning that they won't break unless you wham them as hard as you could into the sidewalk, and maybe not even then. Then we had "cake" (rice krispy bars, cut into heart shapes with frosting and sprinkles for decorating) and lemon sorbet (whole foods brand, mmm, very good). Then Eleanor and the older sister decorated frames, while Amanda's friend and Amanda played trains together. At that point Amanda's friend needed to take a nap, so Amanda opened her present and goodbyes were said.

I feel a little bad that there was no theme, there weren't a lot of decorations (although Michael blew up almost 20 balloons with the helium canister we bought for Eleanor's birthday), and we only had one family. On the other hand, it was about all I could take, and Amanda seemed to enjoy it---she doesn't thrive on having lots of people around like Eleanor does. Eleanor has big plans for her birthday in April, we will see if I am able to work something out. Maybe my sister can come down and help organize =)

My favorite part of the whole party was watching Amanda's face when we lit the candles and sang to her. It was just magical, and worth the whole bother.

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