Birthday Bliss: Lucas Is 4 Now
Lucas is 4 now.
We had a wonderful party-filled birthday weekend (April 29, 30, May 1). On Saturday morning we had 9 of Lucas’s friends over for a 2.5-hour party. I invited each child and a parent to stay during the party, which worked well. (I was totally nervous about managing that many kids on our own, so we didn’t.) We had only two organized activities (finger painting and a story told by Parnasus—THANK YOU, Parnasus!), which is good for this age group; the rest of the time, the kids played in the back yard, blew bubbles and popped the ones from the bubble machines, climbed on the play structure, mowed the lawn, and kicked beach balls around. The weather was absolutely perfect too! We set up a shade structure in the back yard and decorated it with balloons and curly ribbons. We tied colorful silks and fabric scraps to the guylines to keep kids from hurting themselves. The result was very festive. We even strung up a clothesline to hang up wet paintings to dry. So, for posterity’s sake, here are the friends who attended the party: Ambrosia, Kimberlee, Tasha, Xander, Laural, Ella, Henry, Teryn and Sierra. Ages were 2.5 to 6. Lucas chose a “Little People” cake from Raley’s, and thus saved me a lot of time (see previous cake dilemma post). I have the thank you cards done; I just have to mail them.
For the family, we had another party on Sunday evening (after having spent a couple hours at Sacrament Waldorf School watching Mari dance the May Pole dances with her 8th grade classmates). The two parties were far enough apart, at either end of the weekend, to allow us to rest a bit in between them, but were not so far apart as to require complete takedown and cleanup after the first. The shade structure stayed up; the decorations remained, except for popped balloons. All 5 grandparents and Glen’s girlfriend came, as well as Aunt Kellie and Uncle Jonathan and his girlfriend, Courtney. RoRo and Nana were there too. Naturally, Lucas got loads of loot, but nothing objectionable and several things he/we really wanted. VoVo and DeeDee gave Lucas a Razor scooter (with three wheels for preschoolers) and he loves it! He got a soccer kit complete with ball, pump, shin-guards, water bottle, and goal markers. He got a new playground ball, some clothes, and some books that I’ve been eyeing for him. What was fun, though, was that Lucas was so excited to see everyone, and so focused on the birthday cake, he totally forgot about the presents. Folks stayed for 2.5 hours into the evening and then everyone left. It was a little tough to get Lucas into bed that night, but that’s understandable.
On Monday, Lucas’s real birthday, we started the day with a verse and muffins with 4 birthday candles. We sent him off to school knowing that there would be extra super fun stuff to do because it was both May Day and his birthday. Miss Jennifer made an apple cake for him and the children celebrated at school. They gave him a birthday book full of drawings the children made. And Miss Jennifer presented him with a handmade Prince puppet.
The May Queen also visited school on Monday and gave all the children bouquets of flowers. I wish I knew exactly what happened, but the teacher doesn’t have time to explain it to me, and I can’t really get any details out of Lucas.
Ian and I waited until Monday evening, after dinner, to give Lucas our gifts. The kite went over very well, as did the astronaut playset, the train picture books, the gnomes, and the broom. I think I went a little overboard, but hey, I love the little guy. The “build a bug” set was fun, until dark. Then the built bugs bugged Lucas and he wanted them all put away.
May 8, 2006 at 11:25 pm
I am SO happy to hear every thing went so well. Please give your little bug a hug & kiss for me and share a hug between you & Mr. Man since I’m not there to give one to either of you.
<3,
Alex