Ever Turned 4

Ever has been to several birthday parties, and at one point she started talking about whom she wanted to invite to her birthday. I had hoped to delay friend parties as long as possible, but it seemed the time had come. I debated how many and whom to invite. Ultimately I left it up to her and pretty much just invited the handful of people she really cares about/spends time with.

I wanted the party to be really simple and low-key. We just went to Buddy Todd Park on Saturday, December 5 and did a scavenger hunt, played a few games (or tried to, anyway), ate pizza and cookies, and whacked an Elsa piñata.

Aven Dalton and Kara Karner (the two eight-year-olds) were the team captains for the scavenger hunt because they could read the lists of what the teams were supposed to find. I felt bad in the beginning when Ever kept saying she wanted to be on Kara's team, and Aven looked sad. Ever continues to be obsessed with Kara, but it's Aven who actually tries to arrange play dates with Ever and is so sweet to her. Once we got the kids divided up and off on the hunt, everyone had fun, and it kept them busy for a while. I should say everyone but Luc Oddou had fun. He arrived after we had started the hunt, and he was going to join a team but mostly just cried and got upset for some reason. He struggled most of the day. I felt as if I should help him, but I was trying to deal with activities, food, etc. and couldn't really give him the individualized care he needed. Poor, fragile little guy. I should note that Ever shed some tears later over not winning a race or something, so Luc isn't alone in the fragility department.

This is all I got of the scavenger hunt (the birthday girl, in the birthday hat, is bringing up the rear):

After displaying their scavenger hunt findings, the gang (minus Luc, who was trialing) posed for a picture:

Kara, Christian, Ever, Lelei, Ella, and giant Aven

I had planned to play a few games. One involved the crazy-looking box Ever and I decorated that appears behind the kids in the above picture. The hole was a bit small for throwing a tennis ball through, but some of the kids (and adults) tried a little. We also did races while balancing rice-filled plastic eggs on spoons, and then we broke for food. We sang "Happy Birthday," and Ever blew out candles in her giant chocolate chip cookie. The others enjoyed regular-sized cookies:

At one point someone spotted Ever and Ella off on a bench having some alone time:

BFFs:

I tried to get games going again after lunch, but it was too hard to corral the kids at that point. Kara and Aven did humor me briefly by trying to race with balloons between their legs:

Piñata:

Aven broke the piñata on her first turn, and Ever was sad she didn't get another shot at it. Christian Karner actually never got to hit it at all. Later, Ever told us she wanted to share some of her candy with Christian because he hadn't gotten to hit the piñata (although he had gotten candy like all the others). She put some of her candy in a baggie, and we delivered it to him. 

Despite my repeated requests that no gifts be purchased, Ella and Lelei brought presents. Aven brought a little ring with an "E" on it, and Kara, Christian, and Luc brought drawings/homemade cards, which were cute. Ever opened Ella's and Lelei's presents after we got home.

All in all, I thought the party went pretty well. Turns out at this age it's hard to get the kids to cooperate and focus on games, but the scavenger hunt was fun.

Ella and Aven were the last friends to leave the park. As we were getting ready to say our goodbyes, Jim said he always thought it was sad at the end of birthday parties when all his friends went home. He invited Ella and Aven to come play at our house for the afternoon to keep the party going. The three girls had fun at our place until right before our dinner guests arrived. (We had Gary and Jane Oddou and Arlen and Lois Harris, two older couples from our ward, for dinner that night.) 

On Wednesday, December 16, we had the Wilsons over for a birthday dinner (which consisted of more pizza). Jeremy and Trish brought all the kids, and Nanny and Papa came, too. It was a lot of fun just hanging out. Luke and Brody play really well with Ever and entertained themselves nicely. We had ice cream for dessert, and Ever got to blow out more candles. We took no pictures except for this one:

We were going to have Ever open just the presents from the Wilsons, but we ended up doing all the family presents that night. Everyone was very kind, and she got lots of Frozen stuff. Apparently when Trisha asked her what she wanted for her birthday, Ever answered, "Frozen rain boots." Thanks to Amazon, Trish was able to make her wish come true. 

When I put Ever to bed that night, I just lay and chatted with her for a while. I let her stay up crazy late, but I was enjoying her so much. At one point she asked, "Guess which party I liked the best?" I refused to guess, and she finally said, "This one. It was way fun. But you did fun things at the other one." I had to concur. It was just a really enjoyable evening with the Wilsons, and I was glad Ever had a good time.