Andrea's 6th Birthday Party

Annabelle had SOOO much fun at Andrea Ely's birthday party today! Her party was at a sports complex in Orlando that has a big "Kid's Stuff" area for the kids. They have all kinds of activities and play equipment. Belle was in heaven! In addition to all of the things to do, she got to play with older kids. She loves trying to keep up with older kids. Although she loves playing with her Mommy, she has so much fun playing without her Mommy too. It's fun to read her eyes as she's trying to figure out what the big kids are doing and do the same thing herself. She's figuring out the whole "get in line" thing, but hasn't quite mastered that once she gets to the front of the line, then it's her turn to go. She would get to the front and not go, so the older kids kept passing her. She didn't care though.

Annabelle had lots of fun riding on and driving those cars that propel by turning the steering wheel back and forth (so did I!). She LOVED the balloon time where each kid was supposed to be keeping his/her balloon up in the air with a racquet, but Annabelle thought it was more fun to hit hers with her racquet (and, of course, her balloon popped). She loved throwing the tennis balls onto the velcro wall. She was excited about hitting the pinata, until it was her turn and she decided she didn't want to try it. She got some great air and jumped awesome on the trampoline where she was even able to continuously jump rather than jumping once and falling over (the last time I saw her on one was at gymnastics last summer when she had just begun jumping). She tried the parachute holding thing, but wasn't quite ready for that yet. She sat at the table with the big kids and ate her cake and a whole piece of pizza all by herself (at home we usually just give her the crust and about an inch of actual pizza). She laughed at the big kids when they were blowing their noisemakers and was excited when she figured out how to blow her own noisemaker. She sat in a large dish (for lack of a better word) and spun with 2 other girls. She took turns pulling and riding in a wagon with Alyssa (Andrea's little sister). It was a busy 2 hours!

This was one of the first events where Annabelle did most of the things on her own as a big girl. It was so amazing to watch her and be able to see the curiosity in her eyes as she took in what the big kids were doing, processed it, then did it herself. It's so hard to believe that she's old enough that she's now doing these sorts of things and going on playgrounds all by herself. Not that I had any doubts that preschool will be good for her, but this just makes me even more excited that she'll be going somewhere that she'll get to play with lots of kids and see and do lots of new things without her Mommy or Daddy's help. I can't wait to hear about all of the big girl things that she'll be doing in school soon, but at the same time, I'm guessing I'll be a little sad that I am not there to see her experiencing all of these things. It's going to be weird having her tell me stories about things that she does at school because right now, with the exception of her Daddy-time, I'm there for practically every experience that she tells me about.

Corgan was great for the whole party! Carla's mom held him for quite a while, then one of Carla's friend took over until he needed a bottle. I fed him, and he was back to smiling at everyone again. He was great and I got lots of compliments on how good (and cute, of course) he is! :)

Happy Birthday Andrea! Thank you for inviting us to your party!