Park Party

The last of Riley's little group of friends turned two this weekend. I can not get over how much growing up has been going on right under my nose! It was a fabulous party and little Miss E the birthday girl had a fabulous time, can you tell?

it was my first solo birthday party since the hip surgery. I have an amazing group of friends and I wouldn't have occurred to me to worry, but it was a park party. You just never know what to expect with those (or with a two year-old). I'm not super mobile right now (nor have I ever been) so reading a shelter number on an invitation always makes me nervous.

I thought about using the wheelchair, but I knew loading and unloading aside the terrain would be unforgiving. Crutches it was. Riley insisted on her party dress, but having made that mistake before I added polka dot leggings ans sensible shoes so she could climb.

I got to the party early. I told myself, I could do this if I stayed tough. The last party we went to I was less healed and she got waaaaay away from me. Mike was there and after some yelling and arm waving he collected her. This time I was on my own...I scoped out the close proximity to the bathrooms and breathed a sigh of relief. Then before we could get out of the car E's Daddy was there asking if he could help.

I had him carry the present, but made Riley walk holding my fingers all the way to the shelter. The playground was right next to us. Not just that is was the little kid playground! Perfect. We hugged the birthday girl and went over to check it out. E's parents had scoped it all out before hand, way to go. They made an awesome mix of kids party music. They even had healthy party food: lots of fresh fruit, cheese, goldfish, pretzels raisins and craisins. Aside from the cake it was all good stuff. Riley tried yogurt covered raisins for the first time and LOVED them. She calls them candy raisins.

We successfully navigated the playground together, perched ourselves on a picnic table bench for a snack and even made a successful potty trip. At that point the kids and daddies hit the playground and I got to rest for a bit. Riley stayed close most of the afternoon and it wasn't until it was time to go that she discovered the big kid playground. In the end I enlisted help and lured her to the car with promises of more candy raisins.

It was an amazing afternoon. Good friends, great music and cute kids. I can't believe how they've grown. I knew these kids before they could crawl and now they walking, talking, dancing, bossing mommy around two year-olds.