Amelia's Birthday Celebration

We held Amelia's 7th birthday on Wednesday, July 21 at the University Park pool. The pool is our public neighborhood pool and it is a great facility. There are two pools - a baby/toddler wadding pool and a large pool with a shallow end and two diving boards in the deep end. There is a spray ground for younger children and a huge curvy water slide too, so it is a pretty fun place for kids (and adults). Amelia co-hosted the birthday bash with a good friend of hers, William. William was born three days earlier than Amelia and they have always gotten a kick out of having birthdays so close together. Together the two families probably invited 50 children (I know!) and I would guess that we had about 30 show up for the party, plus a dozen siblings who tagged along. It was a lot of fun, but completely insane in terms of the chaos and energy level of the children that evening.



William's mom and I divided the party prep duties and one of the things I was responsible for were the favors. With Amelia's approval, we purchased a box of candy and a water gun for each child. Amelia and John actually had fun helping me select the prizes and they spent about an hour sorting them once we got home from the store. Of course it didn't take a full hour to sort the favors, but Amelia directed John to help her redo it several times - once by color, once by shape, once by type of candy, etc - until they got tired of this activity.



William's mom was in charge of the cake. I loved this cake - it was delicious!! - and the decorations were perfect.

Amelia and William are waiting for their friends to sing happy birthday below. I don't know why Amelia is making those gestures. Imagine the chaos of the dozens of kids around the table with the cake on it, just waiting for a slice. You can see John trying to make his way through the crowd at the very bottom right of the photo.

William's mom did a fabulous job organizing the cutting of the cake. I would have completely lost it if I had that many hands shoving plates in my face asking for this or that particular part of the cake.

After cake, the kids dispersed throughout the pool area and things calmed down . Below is an adorable shot of the birthday party kids, William and Amelia. Don't you love the birthday necklaces that William's mom brought back from a recent trip to New Orleans? The birthday cake glasses are great too. A week after the party and Amelia is still wearing them around the house.

After most of the children left for the evening we were lingering with a few of the remaining kids and their parents in the party area. There were a few very small pieces of the cake left on the tray, which were all covered in gobs of icing. William's mom and I were talking about how they selected the cake and she asked Amelia if she had liked the special cherry-flavored icing that William had selected for the cake (the pink around the border was sinfully delicious cherry icing!). Amelia said that her piece didn't have any so William's mom suggested she use her finger to take some from the platter. Now we know that Amelia LOVES her icing so it didn't take much to convince her to follow the adult's suggestion and actually stick her FINGERS in the cake. This was a bit hit with some of the other kids after they caught on, and they all seemed a bit astounded that the addults were encouraging them to enjoy the last remnants of cake (with their hands!). I even took a swipe of icing as I share the same fondness for it as Amelia.

After we arrived home at 9:00 p.m., exhausted and sweaty from being in the 100 degree late evening heat at the pool, and we all had cool showers, Amelia begged to open gifts. I think we made it through three that night before the fun overwhelmed us all and the kids were put to bed. We all enjoyed Amelia and William's party and agreed that this was a very fun and special way to celebrate the kiddos turning 7!