Birthday Madness

We spent this weekend fully immersed in birthday madness. We threw our first formal (well, the first one where we actually sent out invitations) birthday party for the triplets and we had a blast. I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking because 1) there are quite a few of them and 2) I'm still recovering from the whole event. Seriously, that half marathon a few weeks ago was a cakewalk (pun intended) compared to this thing.

We had to go with a gender neutral theme (obviously), so we opted for the Polar Express. The kids love the movie and it has the added bonus of being Christmas themed (and also because both Michael's and Party City put all of their Christmas party decor on sale 2 weeks before Christmas ... score!). We were able to use an awesome space at the university for the party, which was great. It had tons of room and lots of places for little kids to run - two things you are looking for when you have a bunch of 4 year olds and it's too cold to play outside.

We had all the tables set up with different activities.

If you can't tell from the pictures, we had a table to build mini marshmallow sculptures, a table to decorate foam cutouts with stickers, a decorate your own icing tree table, and a peppermint play doh table. The kids all seemed to have a great time and everyone had their favorite table that it was hard to pull them away from.

We also had food (of course ... I threw this party, remember?).

And of course a hot chocolate bar!

We also asked all of the kids to wear their pajamas (so no, I did not forget to dress them this morning ... though it did feel a little weird to take off one pair of pajamas just to put on another pair). The kids enjoyed just hanging out with their friends, moving from table to table, and munching on snacks and hot chocolate during the course of the afternoon.

The highlight of the party was singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles on the cupcakes!

All in all, it was an awesome day. The kids had loads of fun and even though I thought we were going to have a mid-party emergency stomach evacuation (from Luke, who had managed to eat his weight in mini marshmallows during his time at the marshmallow building station), we managed to avoid disaster. Let's keep those bodily fluids confined to home, right folks?!?

We also decided to have the triplets' guests bring toys for the Ronald McDonald House instead of gifts for them. They are going to receive plenty for Christmas, so it seems silly to ask for anything other than a donation to a great organization. Plus, we're really hoping to use it as a learning opportunity for the kids. You're never too young to learn to give to those less fortunate than yourself, both at Christmastime and at all times of the year. We'll be making a run to the Ronald McDonald House later this week and the kids are excited to go meet the other children and families there and to give them the gifts that were donated.

I can't believe on Wednesday that these kiddos will be 4!!! Where has the time gone?