3rd Birthday Party

Sunday the 21st was Kaitlynn's 3rd birthday party. We had it at a local McDonald's. It was great having the party somewhere besides our house - so much less prep. The party wasn't as structured as it was supposed to be, but the kids all had fun. The hardest part for Kaitlynn was having to keep coming out of the play land to go into the party room for different things. She wanted to just stay in the play land and play with her friends and cousins - can you blame her? She wanted no part of the party room - eating lunch, playing games or blowing out the candles.

We had about 30-35 people attend the party. The kids played in the play land while waiting for lunch. We rounded the kids up and brought them to the party room to eat. Then the kids went back out to the play land. The kids were rounded up again and brought to the party room for games. The kids played Pin the Tale on the Donkey, then ran back out to the play land after finishing the game. We had to round the kids back up and bring them to the party room for cake. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Kaitlynn and she refused to blow out her candles (because she wanted to go back out to the play land) - so mommy blew out the candles. Of course all / most of the kids ran back to the play land. Kaitlynn did wait to eat some ice cream before going to the play land.

Her party would not have been a party without a crasher. Yes, there was a party crasher at a 3 year old's birthday! This little boy kept coming up to us and saying that his mommy said he could join the party. And well, we told him that this mommy said he couldn't!

We were at McDonald's for about 6 hours that day! Dave, Kaitlynn and I arrived about 45 minutes before the party so that Dave and I could eat lunch and see what the party room looked like (decorations, etc). The party was supposed to last 1 hour and 15 minutes, but the girl said we could have access to the party room for 3 hours (since there were no parties after us). And we used it! After most of the kids left, Kaitlynn opened gifts. Kaitlynn and her cousin Annabelle had so much fun playing in the play land until the adults couldn't take being at McDonald's for another second!