As I said earlier this week, Ben’s party went well. My aunt from Cincinnati came to stay with us and she was a great help in getting the treat bags together.

The day of the party was definitely hectic. I made some last minute wings and cupcakes just in case there wasn’t enough food. We got to the party place (a multipurpose room at the local park district) about half an hour early, and immediate everyone got to work. If I didn’t have everyone there to help out - Dave’s family and my own - I would never have been able to get everything ready on time. My in-laws and my dad took care of getting the catered food all set up, Fatima and Melanie were on balloon duty, Dave’s cousin helped with the tablecloths, and I had my mini-helpers on table-confetti duty.

To my surprise, people came early - which means they came on time. Whatever happened to Filipino time*? Even the entertainment - the balloon artists came early. Not to worry, everything was more or less set up in time.

The rest of the day is pretty much just a blur. I think the reason why I freak out so much over these things is because I feel like I have to make sure that everything is ok, but I never have time to talk to people, though I have no idea what keeps me so busy. There were so many kids running around - luckily the balloon artists were so patient and made multiple balloons for kids (and the few adults that were brave enough to go in line). The kids had a blast with their balloon animals and having mini sword fights with their balloon swords. The adults had their fill of Italian beef, mostacolli and herbed chicken.

Ben’s birthday cake was humongous - I decided to go a little bigger in size, because people could always take leftovers home, but the cake looked much bigger than the sample that they showed me at the bakery. Ben did a great job blowing out his candles - we even did the whole “Happy Birthday” song twice. The cake was delicious - which I didn’t find out until after the party because I was “too busy” to eat some. We’ve still got a couple plates of it in our fridge.

All in all, it was a great party. Ben went crazy opening all his gifts - we’re trying to pace him in playing with them so he doesn’t get overloaded, but that’s not going to last!

Here’s some pictures:

Tags: Ben, Party On!, Stories //