the party

Well, we survived Bella's birthday party. And I actually I think the kids had a good time! And Bella wasn't scared of having the party either. I had really hoped for nice weather, but it was cool and rained a bit which limited our outside time. We started out playing outside since it wasn't raining at that point. As soon as I felt a drop of rain we did the Dora pinata. Typical Bella, she didn't want a part in a group activity and wouldn't take a try pulling a string of the pinata, so the others didn't mind taking a turn for her. It turned out great with the last string opening it up! No fights over stuff either :)

We then had to go inside to escape the rain. We did the one game I planned - a Dora mad libs game where each kid picked out things to go in a story. One game was probably enough for them though. Then we did cake (Bella again wanted no singing - note her covering her ears) and opened presents. Opening presents was chaos at that point. Our basement seemed really small to begin with having 8 kids and their parents and with wrapping paper and gifts all over, it seemed to get smaller!

Bella handed out the gift bags to each of her friends and then played a bit until it was time to go. Bella has such a hard time with big group situations, and although she did better than other events, she gets so defiant at times and says/does things in front of others that you wish she hadn't. I know this stuff happens to all parents, but I hope they all know Bella really did love having them all there. In fact, the first thing she said to me the morning after was, "Mom, I had a really fun party." Carlo & I had fun too, but agree that maybe we will plan the next one somewhere other than our basement :)