Edison's Ball Party

Edison's first word was "Ball." He loves playing catch and thinks everything in a circular shape is a ball. So we had a ball party. I wasn't really passionate about the theme. I am not sure if it had something to do with being nine months pregnant, or if the theme just wasn't my thing, but I was creatively stumped. It was good enough for my two-year-old. He loved it all.

I got ball pit balls and then put a few of them in each bag to deliver with the invitations.

I thought I was forgetting something because I didn't seem very stressed about the party. I think it helped that we decorated a few days before so I didn't have to worry about that.

The snacks: fruit salad using a melon baller, meatballs and rolls, cheese puffs, olives, popcorn balls, a dum dum topiary, and a cheeseball.
The desserts: mini cupcakes, cream puffs, and truffles.

The only foods I did not make from scratch were the rolls, cheese puffs, and cream puffs.

Fresh-squeezed lemonade. It was delicious and we had leftovers for days!

I made party hats for people to decorate. It took me hours to print, cut, and glue the hats. Then only a few people put a hat together. Such a bummer. I wish I hadn't stayed up until 3am the night before to finish.

 We put out all of the food during the boys' naps and then we woke up Edison a few minutes before his friends arrived. He was confused at first but then became excited.

Alex just kept sleeping until people arrived.

Guests started to arrive and I was able to trick some of them into thinking that making a party hat is cool.

Edison liked the berries. This kid loves berries. He also loves using his shirt as a napkin.

Our townhouse is not very large. It also started raining right at the beginning of the party so the usual mud pool outside was especially bad. So the whole party was stuck inside. I felt bad for the kids. There wasn't a lot of room to run around. There were 24 guests, plus the four of us. It was nice and cozy.

 As soon as I set Edison's cupcake in front of him, he blew out the candles. I had to light them three times before I was finally able to get him to leave them alone long enough for us to sing.

Edison got a ton of gifts. He still plays with his birthday toys almost exclusively. Alex was really good at "helping" Edison open his gifts.

I had a ton (around 1,000) bouncy balls. Our friend was holding them all in his arms as the kids gathered them and then dropping them into the kids' laps. Over and over. It kept them entertained and I was grateful he was doing that.

Sam kept giving Alexa and Madisyn junk food while their parents weren't looking.

The aftermath: once again, I made way too much food. I always do that.

I had several games planned but the kids were all different ages and it was difficult to get them interested in the same thing. This game was paddle ball. I glued plates onto paint stir sticks. The kids mostly used them as weapons so I had to take them away eventually. We also had punch balloons and played a game with throwing bouncy balls into a container.

The party favors were gumballs in a jar. I made one per family, because that's a lot of gum!

 I couldn't have done this without Sam. He went along with all the crazy. It was a crazy overload and he needed a nap for an hour before the party. Such a good man.