Ana's Birthday Party
Pictures (and maybe video) will be posted soon - hopefully by the end of the week.
In case you're wondering, the day was okay ... not as good as I had hoped, but overall I guess I can't really complain - Ana seemed to enjoy it, and that's what really matters. Here's how everything went... (It was a long day)
Since the park picnic shelters are reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis, I tried to get there around noon to reserve a shelter. Failing this, a good friend of ours got there around 12:30 to hold the shelter until I could make it (Thanks again Don!!). After picking up the cake, ice cream, and nearly a dozen balloons, I got to the park at 1. WalMart's company picnic ended up being at the shelter by the playground, so we got the big shelter by the parking lot.
Don and I sat around chatting and doing a little bit of setup at the shelter until a family with a few dogs arrived around 2:30. They took a seat at one of the picnic tables in the back of the shelter, and Don and I decided they were probably just taking a break in the shade and would leave before the guests arrived. We were wrong... they were soon joined by several other families, and within a matter of minutes had taken over the entire back half of the shelter. Errrrggghhhh. They weren't exactly rude to us, but certainly not friendly either, and NOT keeping track of the kids at their party, who kept coming over to our party. At one point, I had to ask one of their guests to stop smoking inside the shelter because the smoke was bothering our guests, and later, they stripped down a young boy in the sink (which happened to be in the front part of the shelter with our guests) completely nude to wash him off, and LEFT HIS DIAPER IN THE SINK!!! Yuck!!
Anyway... I had decided this year to invite some guests at 3pm and others at 4pm, since it seemed that there were people uncomfortable last year when everybody was there together. The idea was to have a chance to party with the 3pm guests, then anybody uncomfortable in the crowd could leave and anybody that wanted to could stay and party with the 4pm guests. For me, it was like planning a really long party... but it was really two parties back-to-back. We had two pinatas and two cakes, and plenty of snacks and drinks.
Bart arrived with Ana at 2:50, fresh from a nap and ready to play. None of the 3pm guests arrived, but Don was still there, with his two sweet girls going back and forth between the shelter and the playground, and his wife Erin stopped by for a little while as well. A few of the 4pm guests showed up early, and we got the party going around 3:30. We broke open one pinata when the first group of kids got restless, then had cake and melted ice cream (note to self: ice cream does NOT stay frozen in a cooler full of ice in 80 degree weather for 3 hrs). Ana opened her presents with a little help from some of the younger guests, who were bored with her "open a toy and play with it for 5 minutes" approach and finally, we broke open the second pinata.
Thank you to everybody that made it to the party, and many, many thanks to the guests that lingered until the end to help clean up as well. I appreciate you all very much.
Pictures (and maybe video) will be posted soon - hopefully by the end of the week.
In case you're wondering, the day was okay ... not as good as I had hoped, but overall I guess I can't really complain - Ana seemed to enjoy it, and that's what really matters. Here's how everything went... (It was a long day)
Since the park picnic shelters are reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis, I tried to get there around noon to reserve a shelter. Failing this, a good friend of ours got there around 12:30 to hold the shelter until I could make it (Thanks again Don!!). After picking up the cake, ice cream, and nearly a dozen balloons, I got to the park at 1. WalMart's company picnic ended up being at the shelter by the playground, so we got the big shelter by the parking lot.
Don and I sat around chatting and doing a little bit of setup at the shelter until a family with a few dogs arrived around 2:30. They took a seat at one of the picnic tables in the back of the shelter, and Don and I decided they were probably just taking a break in the shade and would leave before the guests arrived. We were wrong... they were soon joined by several other families, and within a matter of minutes had taken over the entire back half of the shelter. Errrrggghhhh. They weren't exactly rude to us, but certainly not friendly either, and NOT keeping track of the kids at their party, who kept coming over to our party. At one point, I had to ask one of their guests to stop smoking inside the shelter because the smoke was bothering our guests, and later, they stripped down a young boy in the sink (which happened to be in the front part of the shelter with our guests) completely nude to wash him off, and LEFT HIS DIAPER IN THE SINK!!! Yuck!!
Anyway... I had decided this year to invite some guests at 3pm and others at 4pm, since it seemed that there were people uncomfortable last year when everybody was there together. The idea was to have a chance to party with the 3pm guests, then anybody uncomfortable in the crowd could leave and anybody that wanted to could stay and party with the 4pm guests. For me, it was like planning a really long party... but it was really two parties back-to-back. We had two pinatas and two cakes, and plenty of snacks and drinks.
Bart arrived with Ana at 2:50, fresh from a nap and ready to play. None of the 3pm guests arrived, but Don was still there, with his two sweet girls going back and forth between the shelter and the playground, and his wife Erin stopped by for a little while as well. A few of the 4pm guests showed up early, and we got the party going around 3:30. We broke open one pinata when the first group of kids got restless, then had cake and melted ice cream (note to self: ice cream does NOT stay frozen in a cooler full of ice in 80 degree weather for 3 hrs). Ana opened her presents with a little help from some of the younger guests, who were bored with her "open a toy and play with it for 5 minutes" approach and finally, we broke open the second pinata.
Thank you to everybody that made it to the party, and many, many thanks to the guests that lingered until the end to help clean up as well. I appreciate you all very much.
Labels: Ana
posted by Jen, Bart, and Ana at
4:02 PM
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