We survived Logan’s birthday party, and so did everyone who came.  Carolyn and her family came early and did a whirlwind of final house fixing and getting ready things with us, which made us way more presentable in the last hour than we’d gotten in the rest of the morning before that.  Matilda and Lilly blew up balloons and they and Logan taped them up all around with Logan — some are still up now, making us officially decorated, and then work kept getting done and done.  Matilda worked after the party was going on too, for which I should be writing her her own separate thank you note!
We had seventeen kids if I’ve counted right, and somewhere between half and two thirds that many parents.  Some kids carpooled, some parents carpooled, some kids brought one, some brought two parents.  The house got full very fast, and then emptier once I said “if you want to run go outside” and everyone close to four feet tall left the house.

We didn’t have party games planned, although we did have food and more food.  The kids played with what was outside, climbed in barrels that had been meant to store cocoa beans but weren’t the right size; shifted wood around to make structures, built and smashed some things over near the shop with Behmor parts that were waiting to go to the dump.  (As good a use for them as any I suspect!)  I think we had about six kids from Logan’s class and everyone else ranged from preschool through third grade, plus Cameron who is now one and walking.  We invited the entire class, plus all school friends, and some teachers.  One teacher even came, Mrs Marie Christine Logan’s first kindergarten teacher.  As for the kids, Logan’s friends cover a wide range of ages and both genders.

John took anyone who was interested out to see the animals.  Kids came back carrying eggs and smelling of goat, so I think that went well.  They also walked down in to the pasture looking for old cow bones, which isn’t an activity I would have thought of, but certainly happens often enough at our house, and apparently found success with that too.  I’ve wondered since if the cow bones taken home were better party favors for some of them than the ones I shopped for.  Little did I know.  The adults who went out to see the animals also seemed to enjoy the walk, which is good.  I was inside staying away from uneven ground and didn’t even know it was happening until later.

For cake we had cow’s-milk-free (of course) marble cake and cow’s-milk-gluten-all-dairy-and-any-othe-allergin-for-kid-attending-free chocolate cake which were actually the same recipe made with different flours.  We ran out of the marble cake before we were done so some people got gluten free cake even though they didn’t need it, and we had about two slices of that left at the end.  Next time more cake … no party is actually planned, but more cake when ever the next party is.   I’ve told Logan we might take cake for after school time and just share it while we hang out next year rather than having a party — I can think about that much fuss.

Carolyn, who needs to contract herself out as a party organizer, managed the slicing and handing out of cake.  I think she had me slicing the gluten free cake actually, there was less to do on that one at the beginning.  We directed everyone to Papas John and Mike for eggnog or peach ice cream which we’d made a couple days before.  The peach was peach and simple syrup, making it, in kid lingo, “glutin free dairy free ice cream”.  (I tried at the cooperative play group, when we made it, to explain fruit sorbet to the little ones — they settled on glutin free dairy free ice cream.  I gave up!)

Carolyn also orchestrated the opening of presents for me, since I knew it could happen calmly, but I couldn’t manage it.  She got all the kids sitting with the gifts they’d brought, and an adult to write down what each was and who it was from as it was opened, and then each kid got to give their gift to Logan.  Julia, one of the third graders read cards for her most of the time.   Jeana, Lilly K.’s mom took pictures as gifts were opened, so I actually have a record of Logan opening things too, since I was sitting somewhere near the back being distracted by everything.  Logan was delighted, and overwhelmed and appeared to be happy with everything she received.

This weekend our goal is to write thank you notes, before too much time has passed.  Logan has been playing with gifts she received all week and loving them, and I don’t want to skip the thank you step.  We went to someone else’s birthday party yesterday, and got an invitation to one happening the day before my birthday next week.  I don’t remember last year being this busy!   I’m very happy about how many people came and that they seemed to enjoy the party.

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