Peter's Friend Party

Peter has been waiting patiently for January to get here so it could be his birthday. Then a week ago, he told me that he had never had a birthday party and he wanted one. Natalie helped him plan it and wrote out friends to invite, and Natalie planned activities like a pinata, a water balloon fight, etc, and I nixed most of her ideas. I still don't love doing stuff like this. I reminded Peter that he gets two friend parties, so here was party #1. I took over planning for it from Natalie earlier this week. I didn't sent out invites, but just texted some neighborhood friends earlier this week to see if this Saturday worked for them. We were going to do today or his birthday next Tuesday. I thought Saturday would be better/less stressful for me, so that's what we went with. I ran to the Dollar Store this morning and pick up some toys for a "pass the parcel" game, and prizes for a few carnival things, and Peter's request for mint chocolate chip ice cream. We had a fishing game, a "pin the tail on the donkey" game (put the spiderman on the building), and a basketball game. I also got red, black, and white frosting so I could make him a Spiderman cake. I got a chocolate Costco cake and then used this image as my inspiration, and have to say I nailed it.

Friends came at 1, and we had coloring pages for them to do while we waited for everyone to arrive. Natalie did a good job being the hostess.

Katharine was excited for a party! I think she thought it was for her. 

Pretty girl, cheesy grin.

Abi, Lily, and Sophi all came and helped out too. After everyone was here, Peter wanted to do cake. So that's what we did. 

Happy Birthday to you!

Cake and ice cream for everyone. My children enjoyed this part, since I've sworn off buying desserts during 2025, with birthdays being the exception. So they lived it up. Then Peter wanted to open presents. Into the front room we went. I gave Peter a few things I got thrifting - some dinosaur pjs, a spiderman jacket, and a remote control Lightening McQueen car. 

Then it was time for pass the parcel. 

We were about an hour in at this point, so I excused myself and the girls took over from here. Party went until 3, it was good, I survived, and then O&D had their soccer friend's come over for a playdate. After that, the day was over, the birthday battle was won, and so I rewarded myself with Climbing with Corey tonight from 8:10 - 9:35 at the new Ft. Union Momentum. I did 9 top rope. We both attempted a red 5.11a, woo! and did mostly 5.10s - two a, one b, and three c's. At the very end we did an orange 5.9 and it felt really hard, hopefully just cause we were both spent. My palms were done. Glad it's time to call it a weekend and head to bed. 

Oh, I guess I'll report on yesterday real quickly... I did a good job cleaning. Katharine entertained herself with a bucket of barley while I worked. It was cute. I wonder if seemed like a bucket of sand to her? She was quite mesmerized. 

I got the chore board modified, as we were struggling with it. I figured we don't need to track a whole week right now. We'll just take it one day at a time. 

Then at 2:20 I went on a ride to the ruins. It took me a while, over 2 hours, cause the trail was pretty narrow and if you move off of it at all, the bike tire slides into the snow. 

Thus I did a bit of hiking, and I'm thinking it might be time to get a fat bike if I think I'm going to keep this up, but I made it, yay, and it was beautiful.

We went to India House for date night last night, and even though we still don't have Corey's car back, life is good. (Corey's car has been at Tanner's Transmission for SIX WEEKS today! I think they might be incompetent.)