Birthday Party Shuffle

Today we had 2 parties, but this time, the 1st party was for one of Alexis' friends and the 2nd was for one of Andrew's. 

So in the morning, the kids were up of course earlier than Daddy and I wanted to be, but this has become a regular occurance for our Saturdays.  This morning our family was runnin' on Dunkin'.  Then Alexis and I got ready...in bum out clothes.  Normally for parties, I try to dress her in at least a cute play outfit, but today we picked a shirt we don't care about and sweatpants because it was an artist party and the invitation said "dress for mess".  Alexis doesn't seem to understand that she's a kid and it's ok to get dirty, even though I have told her this many many times.  She did get into painting,  but if she realized she had paint on herself (anywhere but her face that is) she asked me to wipe it off - immediately.  Then she discovered Zoey and Marcella had paint all over their feet and legs and she went and stood in the paint tray...even then she wanted me to clean it off before she would sit down and wait her turn for "paint the tail on the donkey".  Over all, she had a fun time and of course did not want to leave and wanted extra cake.  She left with a belly full of rainbow cake with purple icing, feet covered in sidewalk chalk, a unicorn magnet with many layers of paint on it that still isn't totally dry, a painted face and a shirt that was relatively clean. 

She wasn't on stellar behavior as the party wound down and didn't get much better at home, so since party number 2 would have been her first as a tag-a-long, she stayed home with Daddy. I don't think she even realized that she missed a party though because she had already been to one for the day.

This was Andrew's first time for an invite to be for him and for him not to be a tag-a-long sibling.  He was the 2nd youngest there.  Some of his church nursery pals were there.  He tried to keep up with older kids that were batting around toys and tried desparately to sneak out the back door... which would have resulted in a surprise head-first trip down to the concrete but he didn't care.  He tried and tried but to his dismay never succeeded.  He had his 1st 3 bites of cake... I didn't let him have any icing though.  That will have to wait for his party.

We got home to learn that Alexis' behavior was greatly improved and she had helped daddy in the yard.  She sprayed bushes with water and rode her tricycle while Daddy sprayed our non-grass yard with weed killer/grass feed... hopefully this year our yard be be just that, a yard, and not a weed garden.