Let's Party

I need to extend my deepest apology to Miles for giving birth to him at the hottest time of the year.  What this means, sweet boy, is that your birthday parties will most likely have an element of misery for however long we do parties...OR until we move to a house with a pool...OR until we can convince our HOA to put a pool in our neighborhood...OR until I break down and throw your party at a pool.

This year is said to be the hottest summer since 1980.  And it is for the reason of triple digit temperatures that Miles' party started at 9:30 a.m.  That's right.  Wake up and party like it's 1999!   Miles and Knox are actually their happiest selves in the mornings after a good breakfast anyways.  And you know how it is with these toddlers - do whatever it takes to reduce your chances of a meltdown.  Write it down - words to live by.  But more importantly, the morning is really the only reasonable time to let the kids play outside sans water in this heat.  I mean, freakin' hot is better than flaming hot, right?  And, with lots of bottled water and newly installed misters on our deck, we figured everyone could handle it.

Remember how I mentioned saving a ton o' money on this party?  Well get this.  Nino and Papa brought with them their very own bounce house for the kids to play on.  Genius!  They graciously set it up in our backyard, and it was a total hit.  Thank you Nino!

Miles and Knox actually had several minutes with the bounce house before too many of our guests arrived.  I let them play while I finished setting up inside.  Then, our first guests arrived - a little boy in Miles' class at school with his parents and newborn twin siblings!  So as I was welcoming them to the party and gushing over the babies, I look out the back door and see this:

Followed by this...

Who's running this dog and pony show anyway?  

Evidently, an unfortunate leak in those misters brought the pigs to the watering trough.  This was the point where I added super immune booster kid vitamins to my grocery list and showed them the way to the cooler.

Within about an hour it was getting really hot, so we moved the party indoors for a bit to let the kids cool down and eat snacks and cupcakes.

Apparently, Miles isn't into blowing out candles.

After snacks, I could sense some of the parents discouraging their kids from going back outside because of the heat, so we decided to let Miles open his gifts.  I wasn't going to do this, only because I would personally rather be whipped than to watch other kids open presents, but I kept hearing little chipmunk voices throughout the morning saying, "Miles, open your presents!"  Now I know why. 

There is an unspoken birthday-present-opening protocol known only to toddlers, which I have uncovered and will now reveal to you.  The role of the birthday boy is simply to tear away the restrictive covering and expose the gift.  After approximately 3 seconds of two-fisting the gift to identify its contents, birthday boy drops the gift loosely to his side with a one-handed grip while looking for his next target.  Birthday guest seizes the unwrapped gift from the birthday boy's hand to inspect it while birthday boy uncovers the next gift.  One by one, each guest relieves birthday boy of his gifts until everyone is left with a new toy in hand.  Then, they look to any nearby adult and squeek in unison, "Open it!"  Fast forward through the jaws of life prying the new toys out of their packaging, and you're left with a group of content toddlers.     

My biggest regret of this party was not getting a picture with Miles, or even just a solo shot of him.  But I did manage to get this:

Every 3 year old needs superhero luggage, right?