Birthday Olympics

Anna & Grandma

Today Anna celebrated her 6th birthday in Olympic fashion - with an Olympic themed birthday party.

Since Anna enjoyed watching the summer Olympics so much and Anna's birthday was on Labor Day this year, Mom thought it might be fun to have an Olympic-theme party.  It could be at the house and Olympic games could be held in the yard.  Mom had a vision (something she is not short on).  Execution of the vision is another story.

The first problem was the dilemma of who to invite.  The original plan was a small group of Anna's friends.  The problem was the first week of school, which was August 27.  Because Anna's school is small, it is customary to invite everyone in the class.  Who to invite?  Last year's class?  Her new class?  Mom decided to invite both and bet on the fact that several people will be out of town Labor Day weekend.  Then there were other friends to invite......pretty soon the list was long.  The end result:  23 kids + some parents & friends = well over 40 people (we were never able to get a full count).

The second problem was the weather, which was forecast to be beautiful all the way until Friday.  That is when the forecast changed and the remnants of Hurricane Issac were slated to hit the Northern Virginia area.  At this point, Dad intervened and suggested moving the party to the community clubhouse.  This was a brilliant idea, especially as the crowd grew larger (as Aunt Gayle pointed out - our house would have been trashed).  This meant last minute e-mails & texts to folks since the venue was changed the night before.  It also required hanging signs on our house and having neighbors redirect people to the new location.

Anna, Aunt Gayle & her new books

The party began with coloring of flags from different countries.  After the flags were completed, the athletes marched in to the Olympic Fanfare music carrying their flags.  Anna carried the Olympic torch.  The games began outside (in 97% humidity - no joke) with a relay race.  This was followed by an obstacle course in which athletes were required to hula hoop five times and race to put on a vary stylish Hawaiian shirt, and run back.  The athletes returned to the air conditioning to finish some other competitions (hot potato, a hula hoop race, and a mummy wrap).  There was also some pin-the-tail on the donkey in between lunch and cake.  Mom quickly found that a whistle was her best friend during the event.  A large group of 6-year olds in the hands of an amateur ......well let's just say a lot can go wrong.  At one point, Mom found herself yelling at the boys "no headlocks." 

Lunch was its own challenge.  We attempted to boil some hotdogs, but the heat was a bit high.  We served exploding hot dogs to the kids (strategically placed on the bun with ketchup).  There were non-exploding sandwiches for the adults.  Grandma & Mom made an Olympic ring cake.  They attempted to make Olympic torch cupcakes they saw on the web using ice cream cones.  The end result was cupcakes that looked like melted ice cream cones, thus they were not served.

Anna, Anna & Charley & her new globe

The event concluded with a closing ceremony, complete with presentation of medals and a goodie bag.  Anna had a great time and many parents seemed amazed that we had an old fashioned birthday party (points for creativity and craziness).   Anna 's friend Ella came over to play afterwards and enjoy opening presents along with her friend Aidan.

 A big thanks goes out to Grandma who worked all week on getting things ready and baked the cakes.  She also went through about 6 pounds of powered sugar to ice everything.  A big thanks also goes out to our friends who helped set up (Aunt Gayle) and clean up (Kristy, Sue, Anna, Gayle).  We also found out that a clutch parent to have at a party is Mr. Martinez (aka, Joseph's dad), who is an event planner.  He was awesome with getting the food organized and served to the kids.  Unfortunately there are not many pictures at the moment for this birthday event because we had no time to take any.

Anna & Ella

It is hard to believe 6 years have gone by.  Ironically, our niece Christina just welcomed her baby daughter, Elizabeth on September 2 - the Sunday of Labor Day weekend just like we did 6 years ago. It has been a memorable journey so far full of many lessons along the way.  The lesson for today - have a smaller party next year.

Happy 6th Birthday Anna!