Birthday Party!

Today Viva and Jake turned five. Kara and I planned a playground party for them. She invited quite a few children because it's easy to have more guests when the party is outdoors. A good-sized group showed up to celebrate with Jake and Viva. Their cousins came--Felicity, Danarra, Matthias, and Tiernen. Their friends Patrick & Cassidy and Kiera & Chase came. And three friends from Primary (church) came--Annalise, Dawson, and Chloe. Also in attendance were the moms of the party kids with younger siblings, infant, teenage and adult cousins, and a great-aunt.

We were lucky and had the playground to ourselves! The weather wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst either. It was raining very lightly on the way over, but the rain ceased during the party. The children played on the playground equipment for quite a while then I tried out a game I found online. I divided the children into two groups--boys and girls. I put a long rope down on the ground to indicate the dividing line between the two groups. Then we gave each child two soft plastic balls. The object of the game was get all the balls on the other side of the line. I thought the boys would win rather quickly and for a short time it looked like they would, but then the girls rallied (with a little help from an older cousin and me) and stayed in the game. No one won. This game could go on for hours, so we called it a tie after fifteen minutes or so. The children enjoyed the game except for Bentley who was stressed out that the balls being used were theirs from home and they were getting dirty.

It was half-way through the party, so Kara suggested we set out the food. The black olives, pretzels, and Cheetos were very popular, the carrot sticks not so much. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to the twins and they blew out their candles. Jake did his five in one blow, but Viva wasn't doing as well so after three attempts I asked Jake to help her out. (You want to minimize the germs, right?)

The twins opened their gifts. They received lots of fun games and crafts. Then it was time for the piñata. After every child had two chances to bat at it, the piñata was still going strong. (Store purchased piñatas have a cardboard lining. It's hard for young children to break through the cardboard.) We got out the razor knife and weakened the sides before Jake and Viva had their final chance to hit it. Then I let Bentley give it few good whacks and the candy finally started falling out. I grabbed the piñata and threw the candy across a wide area.

We had perfect timing because it was 2PM and the party was officially over. The children had a fun time.