I can’t believe she’s getting so big!

We started off by making crowns. Now, if I’d been smart I would have sized it to their heads before they put all the stickers and designs on, but I didn’t think of that in time…… Sigh.

Isn’t she just the cutest thing? I think that’s one of the best pictures I’ve gotten of her.

After everyone had their crowns properly made, we went over and did some pumpkin bowling. For ease of judging we divided them into a couple of age groups: little guys, big guys, and grandparents. Grandparents are very violent when bowling.

As you can see the game was a big hit with the kids. And you can also see that Batman dressed himself that morning.

Like I said, Grandparnts are apparently very violent. They destroyed these poor innocent pumpkins. One got chunks flying out of it, another got horribly dented, and I think the third got a huge crack around it. We figured out your best bet for knocking over the pins is to lob it, not roll it.

And of course in between activities we have to take a break and play with all the toys. What’s the fun in going to someone else’s house if you can’t play with their toys? Oh, and explore. I got to play find the stray child from time to time.

Then we sat down and drank lots of tea, and ate lots of cookies, cheese, and apples.

And more of it. I probably could have floated those kids down a river with all they drank. The part that cracked me up is after their first cup of tea most of them wanted water (probably because they got to pour the water).

I think this is the most I’ve seen a nonstop grin on her face. I kept trying and trying to remove the red eye from this picture, but it just wasn’t going to cooperate. All it did was turn her beautiful blue eyes black.

I just realized I never got a picture of the whole cake. Oops. Well, it’s a butter cake with chocolate frosting and lots of pink swoopy things. Oh, and pink M&Ms to make the 3. I decided to go for simple, not complicated. I think she picked her cake choice solely by the picture on the cover.

Then the kids started arguing over who got the pieces with M&Ms, so I solved this by giving everyone a small pile of them to put where they wanted on their cake. Hey, I’m sending most of those kids home to their parents in an hour. They’ll be hyper with them (especially since they “won” the candy from the game).

Followed by more playing. I love this Melissa and Doug castle set. It was the boys’ birthday present this year from their Mimi, it gets played with all the time. I think one of the most hilarious parts of the party was when the boys went upstairs with a friend and came down with their Batcave and all of the assorted Batman figures all set to play Batman with the castle.

Then came the opening of presents. At previous parties I’ve tried saying no presents, but no one really listens, so I’ve given up on that. That, and I’ve discovered there is no good angle for taking pictures of people opening presents. Someone always moves to get in the way.

Like this, and that’s my own son doing it this time (they were in charge of bringing Princess her presents. Which meant she’d get them thrust at her, “open it sister.”) Then they’d start helping her open if she wasn’t fast enough.

Nana got her new pink Mary Jane shoes. I don’t think she’s willingly taken these off since she got them. We’re blessed by such wonderful friends and family, truly we are. Everyone brought such wonderful presents that she’s going to love playing with (including her very own Batman doll).

And then of course we had to play more. Don’t you just love the pairing of the knight’s helmet with the tutu?

And the kids happily finished off the day playing outside with Princess’ new toys, and just generally running around.

Yes, that is a real bow and arrow, but it’s a bungee cord string. The only way he could ever hurt anyone is if he managed to shoot them straight in the eye, and even then it’d probably only give them a bad bruise. Besides think of the great coordination he’s working on.

And we finished with Daddy rolling the ball to the kiddos. All in all a nearly perfect day.