One More Tea Party (Leah's B-Day 09)

I got through it. Marathon decorating of Leah's room for her birthday and planning the birthday Tea Party. Actually, there wasn't that much planning for the party because I'm becoming an expert at quick Tea Party's. The most involved process for me now is the invitations.

I just threw together stuff to eat the day of. Which included peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, turkey pesto sandwiches (of course with crusts removed), snack foods, pigs in a blanket, fruit and Chinese chicken salad. We bought decorations as we shopped and picked up some balloons at the store. While at Costco we saw these flowers that we had to have because they matched everything so well. Leah fell in love with them and has been requesting flowers ever since!

 

Leah's cousins Kyra, Alivia and Sam were able to come which made Leah's day. They spent most of the party running around outside in the wind playing Peter Pan and other imaginary games.

Give Sam a balloon and he will be happy for a while! He's so cute...

 

I should note that the day of her party I was thoroughly worn out (regardless of pregnancy) and not feeling well. Which explains why I never got around to getting Leah dressed...and why she ended up dressing herself in this scandalous belly shirt dress-up ensemble with no shoes and scraggly hair. Oh well!

I did have a surprise when Kellen showed up to the party with my birthday present. He bought me a Flip video camera! I was SO excited and surprised...when I opened the box I almost started crying (again I was exhausted) with the pure thoughtfulness of it! I'll have to post video clips later.

I have a very thoughtful mother-in-law. She made a bunch of tea party hats for the party and had everyone wear them...we did request tea party attire!

Isn't Harmony beautiful in her hat?

Anything for Leah...

Leah's favorite cake is vanilla with strawberries. What a coincidence ...so is mine :) I just made a white cake, poured whip cream on top and added the strawberries...MMMM. So pretty too.

We were supposed to have the tea party outside because it was a "Garden Tea Party" but it was too windy. It turned out to be a casual event because of the change of plans. At the end of her party Leah decided wanted to sacrifice her balloons to the wind...which I'm sure the neighbors appreciated :)

Leah is turning 4.

For those of you out of town...a virtual invite to Leah's Tea Party. She had so much fun last year she wants to do it again! This year we are not going as fancy and I'm just going to make a bunch of finger foods that she will enjoy and let her dress up in a princess dress. I can't believe that she is turning 4! Wow.

Love Day

I wanted to document Leah's first school valentines. I found out they were going to do Valentines at school late and so we (I) made some last minute homemade ones for her classmates. She didn't really care. I was sad.

But she was really excited that she got valentines from all her classmates...came home, threw her boots off and coat into the air, plopped down and ate all of her candy in one sitting. I figure it's better for her then eating it for days and maybe she'll feel gross afterwards and not want candy anymore :) My backwards thinking.

We didn't have a babysitter this year so we rented a movie and had a fondue feast in the living room. Fondue is our Valentines tradition which is perfect because it seems romantic whether it's alone with your hubby or if you have a third wheel (small child.)

I love celebrating holidays. Every Valentines day I hear someone say "I would rather he/she showed me they love me everyday." I think that's lame. If that's not happening then you have other issues and your not going to help them by saying you don't want to celebrate valentines in protest. You know what I mean? Accept the idea of one more day to buy/make thoughtful gifts and express your love to your family. Suck it up.

In family therapy we call these opportunites rituals. Rituals are one of the things relationships thrive on. If your not doing enough of them or if you are not respecting the ones you have established over the years...you may be sabatoging your relationship. Maybe I'll write a blog on rituals...to be continued.