Happy Birthday Mari!

Mari's birthday has come and gone over a week ago but it's been crazy around here and I'm just finally getting around to posting about it.

Mari had a wonderful day with me on her birthday. She even leaned over to me during dinner and hugged me and said "I'm so happy to see you, Mommy." It's days like that - well, I'll never forget that moment.

Her party was a huge success; it was also a lot of work. Our friend, Heather, came over to help and we appreciate that very much. By the time Heather and Charles have kids of their own, she'll either be a birthday party expert or never want to do one ever again!

Some random facts about Mari's birthday party.

• The pinata would NOT break. I was so worried about it breaking during shipping and I oh-so-gently stuffed it full of goodies and treated it with kid gloves while getting it ready to hang. It would NOT break. We finally had to have one of the older kids just beat the heck out of it while I held it still. Even then, I basically just had to rip it and dump it out.
• Speaking of older kids....Mari's much-older boyfriend came to the party. She told me earlier in the day that he has a big smile! When he walked in, she walked right over to him and pulled her dress up to show him her underwear. Seriously.
• We had 2 kleptomaniacs in attendance...Landon was trying to sneak Mari's toy cars home and Abigail kept rearranging everyones treat bags.
• We had tie-dye triplets in attendance. I guess when there is only one store that sells tie-dye, the choices are limited!
• Mari did not eat her birthday cupcake...she licked the icing for awhile and then stuck it upside down to the table. If I had made her a potato chip cake - she would have been in heaven.
• Mari totally did not get the whole present opening thing. Everytime we opened a card to see who the gift was from, she insisted on taking the card to the giver. Wading her way through the crowd. Then we waited while we coaxed her back to the present. Then she opened it and then tried to give it back to the giver. And over and over. It was long. Luckily the last few gifts were from me and some people not at the party so we just saved those for later!
• Some of the fabulous gifts (there were so many - and all very appropriate for Mari): roller skates!, a Lite-Bright, lots of puzzles, a Melissa & Doug birthday cake, tie-dye leggings (which she had to put on immediately!), several cool summer outfits, the Princess & the Frog movie and PJs, a swimming Dora, a kissing Elmo, a bathtub toy with a water pump and water-spitting elephant, and several arts/crafts/coloring sets, a pink tutu, and a sprinkler and slip-n-slide. Whew! She should be set for a couple years with all that.

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