McClendon, Party of Five: Peter Cottontail: A Girl's Best Friend

We celebrated Towns' 3rd birthday a little early this year. A trip to the public library about a month or so ago led to this early birthday celebration. One rainy and cold Saturday afternoon when we'd been inside way too long, we decided to get out and take the girls to the library. Bethany and Towns had a ball...who'd have thought library could be such a thrill?! I know why Bethany liked it. She discovered she was old enough to get a library card which makes a girl feel very special. Towns loved it because the children's section is huge and has lots o' aisles to run up and down. Thankfully, they understand this about 2 year olds and don't get upset about it. In the midst of all her running and hiding she stumbled upon a Peter Cottontail DVD and from that minute on, that's all she talked about. We checked it out and took it home and after watching it a hundred and fourty seven times, Peter Cottontail felt like a member of the family. So it was only fitting that less than 2 weeks before Easter Towns decided that the only way to party for her birthday was Peter Cottontail style. I kicked it in high gear and threw it together at mock speed and it turned out to be a huge success. Towns loved it, the kids loved it, and I really loved it because it's the easiest birthday party I've ever thrown!

We kicked it off with a big Easter egg hunt which turned out to be one of those "blink and you miss it" moments. Seems that 2 and 3 year olds are like vacuum cleaners when it comes to finding eggs. It was over in about .5 seconds! Towns found the golden egg on all her own (I swear I didn't cheat and point her in the right direction). Bethany hid all the eggs for me and did a great job of hiding the golden egg. She hid it so well that it took about five minutes of staring at one bush before anyone ever spotted it! All the kids were lined up in front of the bush where it was hidden in because we figured it would take all day if we didn't at least give them a little hint as to where it was. Finally Towns nabbed it and I think that was one of only two eggs that she found. She hasn't quite gotten the concept that hunting eggs is like a race...you know, see who can get the most the fastest. Her take on it is "let me throw my basket down and run full speed at the first egg I see...then open it and eat all its contents before I move on to the next egg." By the time she's gone through this thought process everyone around her has a basket full of eggs. It doesn't bother her at all, though. All she cares about is the candy!

All that egg hunting made for some hungry kids....

I called ahead and arranged for the train to make an appearance or two during the party. I'm kidding...I'm not that on top of it! We did luck up and get to see 3 times which sent all the kids into hysterics. Must have been on a sugar high because that on top of trains = major excitement! We were all ready to sing Happy Birthday blow out the candles when the first train came by, so naturally we had to halt production and turn and wave...