On Friday the 7th my Smiley turned 3 years old and we celebrated with a 'Bug' party at the house.
Lisa had picked up inflatable insect balloons at Target and put them up around the dining room.
Smiley was initially scared of the insects, but we told him they were harmless andhe got over it. We LIED!!!
We'd also planned on a course of lasagna for the adults and sandwiches for the kids, but at the last moment Lent reared its ugly head. It was Friday after all, and while Lisa and her family are Lutheran mine are Catholic. So Lis improvised a pasta buffet with Alfredo and spaghetti sauce and an optional sausage dish.
Surprisingly the pasta idea was a smash hit, and we'll probably offer it again in the future.
While we're on the subject of food, the menu also included ants on a log (raisins and peanut butter on celery) and a bug covered mudhill cake. Without question the cake was the ugliest thing I'd ever eaten and looked downright disgusting, more a dung hill than mud.
Even so it was one of the tastiest I've had, more like a brownie than cake.
The house got crowded fast with 12 kids and 14 adults in attendance. The kids dominated the second floor, the adults the dining and living rooms. The kitchen was neutral territory. Check out all the presents in the 3rd shot!
The first game was 'eat the ants'. A spoonful of jimmies - one for each year of the child's age - was placed on a paper plate in front of them on the floor. Without using their hands they had to eat the plate clean, with the winner being the first done.
Then I was dispatched upstairs to hide 30 rubber insects for a hide and seek game. The kids were sent upstairs by age to try and find them.
[Here's the problem. YaYa qualified for a prize but had won the ant contest and therefore wasn't eligible for another prize (the law is the law people!). She then melted down and had a hissy fit which I quickly tried to squash. Problem is she eventually admitted to being too embarrassed to go back to the party, which led to a bigger fit when I demanded she rejoin the festivities. "I'm six, I'm too old to have had a fit, I can't go out there!"
Man. Sigh. Kids.]
Ok, I had to chop the post in half for AOL. More later!