October 19, 2010201120122013

2014!

As I suspected it might be, Gage’s first big birthday party was a lovely chaotic few hours.  I am so thankful that Gage has friends who want to celebrate with him.  We had 14 kids between 3-5 and they were great. I planned the party myself and I learned a lot for next time, lol.  Here’s what we did.

We put up our bounce house in the family room and Gage welcomed the kids by taking them there first thing.  It got crazy so I put Jason in charge 😉  Lesson learned-need lots of alternative activities close by for the kids who are waiting.

Robert the Rogue (he came sans pirate gear) made awesome balloon animals for all the kids.  Lesson learned-definitely worth the money since I really considered this the big part of their take home favors.

Then the kids headed down to the basement to decorate their own little pumpkins.  Lesson learned-needed someone helping the kids the whole time, more supervision.

Still in the basement we turned out the lights and turned on the disco ball and music. I didn’t really get any good pics of this but Gage will tell you that this was his favorite part of the party.  There was a box of noisemakers for them to choose from and keep but I don’t think I made that clear.  Lesson learned-if you don’t want a lot of extra noisemakers in your house make sure that you pass them out to the kids with instructions to take them home!

Headed back upstairs and Robert the Rogue did a short magic show.  Gage missed some of this by having a mini-meltdown in the kitchen but he made a pretty quick recovery.  Lesson learned-Robert earned his money.

Cake time! Everything we served was gluten free-dairy free. This cake was made by a vegan bakery and we served almond ice cream.  Gage ate neither deciding instead to eat as many grapes and pretzels that he could get his hands on.  Lesson learned-So many things I wish I could have done better here, but my biggest problem was not taking a deep breath and actually making sure all of the food and drinks got to all of the kids.  Parents started chatting and lots of food got left on the island.

It was time for his friends to go and I couldn’t get a smile from Gage in any of these pics, not even with his best bud Lily.  Lesson learned-Gage likes parties and friends and we should have more of both in our house!

It was a great day and I think a good time was had by the kids.  All 14 of them and their parents 😉   As for me, the last guest who came by for Gage’s birthday left at 10 pm.  Needless to say I was happily exhausted.

Can you believe my guy is 4?!?!  If you want Gage to take up a few more minutes of your time you can read all about his entry into the world here.