Partyin' it up in March

Just like February, March has an abundance of birthdays to celebrate in our family. Not only did we do it up for Caleb and Hadley's, we also attended a couple of fun parties for their cousins.

The first cousin to celebrate this month was Peyton, who turned three on March 9th. Her parents reserved one of the local firehalls for the event and put up a couple bouncy houses. My kids ran straight for the fun.

Hadley hasn't quite grasped that she is smaller than the others. Miss Fearless jumped right in!

She got bumped a couple times, but once the tears stopped, right back in she went, smiling again.

Reid was definitely too little to join in all the rough and tumble activities, but he could hang out with Daddy which is still pretty good.

Sleepy fella

In this cute face, a lot of people saw reminders of my dad. Though looking into his blue eyes made a few people a little weepy, it was a sweet thing too to be able to see a little of his granddaddy in him.

Snuggling NaNa some too

To add a bit of excitement to the festivities, a special guest showed up. 

Well hello there, Spongebob.

Reid was more interested in something else.

Later that night when I was tucking him in, Caleb said to me:  " I didn't know Spongebob was real. Did you?...Maybe Peyton knows Spongebob. Maybe that is why he came." 

Then, we had some pinata fun.

Hit it, Birthday Girl!

Out of all the kids there, Hadley is the little booger who accidentally hit another kid with the stick.

They even had face painting, so Caleb got a rocket ship on his hand.

 

Finally, we had some cake and snacks before the presents.

Reid wasn't bothered about doing anything but relaxing on Granny's shoulder and sucking his thumb.

Anabella wanted a turn holding Reid too though, so he got passed around a little more.

A couple weeks later, we were recovered from all the fun at Peyton's party and had two more celebrations to attend. My cousin Haley, who turned 12, and my other cousin Lexi, who turned 7, had their birthday parties back to back at the same location - Midway Rollerama. This worked out well for us since we were killing two birds with one stone and didn't have to load everyone in carseats and rush to get from party to party.

Haley (the sweetheart in the middle) had her party first. 

Then came Lexi's. (She is the cutie in the black and white striped shirt.)

Our kids are on the young side for rollerskating, but we tried it. When I was pregnant with Hadley, I took Caleb to a birthday party there when he was about to turn two and he did pretty well, so I thought we'd give it a shot.

We got off to a rolling start because the wheels on the skates there roll very freely. We passed off Reid to the grandmothers though and each took one of the kids to help keep them from falling.

Hadley seemed to maintain her balance much better than her brother, who flopped around like a noodle. I tried to take him around the rink but finally passed him off to his daddy because my back just couldn't take it.

For being just shy of two years old, Hadley was surprisingly good at it. Since Caleb seemed better at skating when he was her age, I wonder if it's just that she doesn't know to be fearful of falling while Caleb is old enough to recognize the risk. Either way, she got the hang of it and didn't want to stop. When we finally had to leave, she cried and cried.

Caleb decided he was done after the first lap, but good for him, there were some other fun activities to do, such as the assortment of arcade games throughout. 

While the kids enjoyed the skating and games, I was taken away by the remembrances of the parties and skate nights I participated in as a kid at this same place. (I actually even had my birthday there when I turned ten.) Though it used to be called Mac's and the new owners have made a few changes, it's pretty much the same - a big disco ball in the middle, well worn skates, dusty arcade games, and the thudding sounds of one kid after another losing their balance and hitting that wooden floor. It's not the prettiest or most modern of places, and I definitely took my kids home to give them a good scrub afterwards, but it's a place of memories.

Cole getting laced up and ready to go

Cousins Ryan and Blake also had birthdays this month, but Ryan is getting a little too big for family parties and we missed Blake's because I wasn't feeling well. However, I think we definitely got our share of partying the last two months and might need a break in April.