…was a llama fun! It was a whirlwind of a weekend, filled with preparations, dedications and ending with a celebration with so many friends. I honestly was not expecting so many people to be available and interested on a weekend in August but much to my surprise we had a great crowd at Reese’s birthday party and Reese had a lot of kids, her age and otherwise to play with. She is a social butterfly and a go-go bunny when around a lot of people. Her dependency on her parents goes out the window when she has a party to partake.
Preparations really began about a week ago, with us chipping away at work around the house, but then sped into high gear come the weekend. On Saturday morning Bryan actually was cleaning another kitchen, the FareStart kitchen, with some of his leadership team from Boeing for a few hours before coming home to work on our house, or cars. Bryan cleaned both cars until they were bright and shiny, sweeped around the porches and helped me around the house. While Bryan was at FareStart, I started prepping the food, picked up groceries with Reese, laid out the rest of the turf carpet, reorganized the patio furniture, and finished cleaning the deck and outdoor furniture cushions. My parent’s bus was supposed to arrive in Seattle around 3:30 pm but due to delays it was more like 6 pm. We were there to greet them and headed home for Reese to show them around the house and to have a simple dinner of salmon.
Sunday morning arrived and we all got ready for church and Reese’s dedication. Reese had a short nap at home, which wasn’t long enough, but dressed in her finest we headed to church ready for what lay ahead, or not. Reese, tired and antsy, was all over the place on stage, making the dedication a chaotic one and making the church congregation to laugh . Bryan and I left the stage sweating and flushed but we got through it in Reese fashion. After church, we picked up Homegrown to have at home before we all started the final preparations for the party. Mom and I started to work on preparing the salads, condiments and watermelon. Bryan and Dad went to go get ice, drinks, balloons and later the cake from the bakery. We set out the decorations and finished tidying up and then were ready. Reese had a great nap beforehand which was a blessing for what was about to come.
Friends started coming in and the grill got going. Reese started out obsessed with the balloons but then later got interested in first Max (her age), and later Ainsley (2 years older) who she so looks up to. Reese ate half of Ainsley’s chips, ran around the deck and yard, played with her toy car and musical instruments and then was ready to smash the cake. Getting her into the high chair was the struggle and I was leary if she was going to oblige us at all until we started singing happy birthday and she lit up. Presented now with her cake, she started with a few finger tastes before contemplating what was before her, and then digging in face first. It was hilarious! She went back for it a few times face first before finishing about 1/3 of her 6″ cake with her hands and then giving in. I was impressed! After being washed up she was ready to continue to party in all of her glory. She finished out the night surprisingly well, without a noticeable sugar rush, and conked out pretty easily. We cleaned up from the party, were tired but happy, and all ready for some sleep ourselves.
We had a blast on Sunday but couldn’t have done it without some help and of course our amazing friends that made it worthwhile! We missed having the Millers there but are very excited to see them in Arizona in just two weeks time!
Chelsea
Evolving in the Emerald City 