Little Miss Birthday

Well, the weather held out and our 2nd attempt at Towns' 5th birthday party was a success! I was beginning to think that the 3rd time would be the charm, but thankfully it all worked out and a good time was had by all!

Sunday morning I was up at sunrise and on my way to the park to secure our party spot. Everything that you could reserve at the park was taken, so our only hope was to snag a few picnic benches that are first come, first served. And it turns out that when you're at the park at 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, there's no one else there to compete with! With the picnic tables secured, I had a feeling it was going to be a good day. And that, it was...

J headed to pick Bethany up a little early (ok, a lot early) from her weekend at her mom's, and I took the girls on to church.
Before we left, Towns tried to give Cate a lesson or two in curtsying which is a must if you're wearing long, flowing dresses...


Then it turned into a full on ballet class...

I ended the dance class a little early in attempt to get to church on time, but they just couldn't get enough of each other...

And since I can never get enough of them, I can always take just one more...

Afterwards, Bebs and Towns accompanied me to the park to get the party set up. Berek even came early to help, and he got broken into life with the McClendons really quickly! He and B ended up being in charge of playing with Towns while I wrestled a helium tank. I thought it would be genius to buy one instead of trying to transport balloons from Publix across town like I do every year. It usually ends up being something that one could win money off of if there were ever a video camera involved. But then again, I wasn't taking into account the fact that J wouldn't be there because I'd asked him to keep Cate entertained until party time. It was me, myself, and I...and a helium tank that looked like a foreign object. Goodness. I managed to stick with it long enough to figure it out, though!
And soon enough, these two had relinquished their duties...

If sitting on a park bench can be classified as helping, team B & B would take the prize! :) I'm kidding. I think it's cute how they're so in the zone...it's like there's not another soul on this planet but the two of them!
I did manage to sneak a picture of B with the birthday girl before Berek got there...

And once all of Towns' friends arrived, they followed Bethany and Berek around like little ducklings. It had to be beyond embarrassing. But it helps that the girls have Berek pretty much wrapped around their finger (and the feeling is mutual)!

A real estate agent called Saturday to arrange to show our house Sunday at 12:45. If I was smart I would have said NO. But then life wouldn't be quite as entertaining, now would it?! I said "sure, why not, what's one more thing to add to the list?" and told myself that getting our house ready to show on the day of a big birthday party was not really that big of a deal. Unless...you spend all of your time focused on cleaning house and wait until the last minute to get things ready for the party. Having it at the park was a lifesaver, though. The kids played while I prepared! And took more pictures, naturally...




Such hard playing works up an appetite, so we filled the two huge picnic benches full of 20+ hungry children and got ready to party...


But when it came time to light the candles and sing, someone got bitten by the shy bug...

Too funny!
Vivi and Madelyn weren't too shy to get excited about how old Towns is gonna be...

Towns was excited about one thing, as you can tell...ice cream!

By this time the good times were rolling, and I took a few steps back to take it all in...

I need not remind you how sentimental and emotional I am about her birthday, so I'll stop right there! :)

Next up?
Pinata!


Towns got it kicked off, and everyone got a turn before I had to take action since it wasn't budging. A pinata and 5 year olds can be sort of like that Easter egg hunt I mentioned last week. You don't want to be in the middle of it when it all goes down!
As soon as I got the candy out, I ran. And this would be why...

It felt like I was in the middle of a pool of piranhas! And if I'm being completely honest, I should tell you that several came out crying!

J got their minds off of it with balloons...

They got lined up and on the count of 3 they let them go...

That part of the party took the cake...they loved it!

It was pretty close to perfect in every kind of way...








And I'm so thankful for super fabulous friends and family who made it such a special day!