Two Years and Two Days

Lucy turned two on Saturday!

She loved her birthday cake. She has been obsessed with birthday cakes since Easter.

Although when it came time to blow out the candles, she balked. I blew them out for her. And she was not a huge fan of everyone gathering to sing and watch her. I can understand that myself.

We held a super simple birthday party. The theme was a few of Lucy’s favorite things: balls, balloons, bubbles and birthday cake.

A few weeks ago, I ordered an unreasonable amount of solid color beach balls from none other than beachballs.com. Lucy had so much fun playing with balloons at Maya’s birthday party, that I thought that would be perfect. But I really wanted to have her party outside. I thought the beach balls would be less likely to break or fly away. I ordered a rainbow of colors in the medium size, three huge red balls and one massive clear ball. I thought they would be beautiful out in the grassy area of the 10th Street Park.

Plus we could hang a couple of bouquets of balloons next to a little felt bunting from last year’s birthday. Add cake and drinks and we’re done. Super sweet and simple. The only major dilemma was how to transport all of the beverages, balls and balloons to the park the morning of the party.

Except of course, there was a forecast for rain all week long. I began debating whether we should change the party on Tuesday. It was supposed to rain for three days straight. Henry said that we should wait until the morning of to decide. No question. Outdoor parties are the best, he declared. So we waited and blew up lots of balls and balloons on Friday night. BicycleSPACE even pumped up most of the rainbow-colored balls for us. (We thanked them today with their own little birthday cake.)

Saturday morning, I agreed with Henry. It really had not rained that much the day and night before. Maybe a small drizzle, but our alley was predominantly dry. So I sent out an email saying that the party at the park was still on as planned. I returned to the living room only to see it raining. A real spring shower. So we changed our minds. Now it was time to drive to the church, which should be much simpler. Right? We can drive right into the parking lot and unload the car and set up. Easy. Except…

The garage was closed. Do you recall that the garage was also closed two years ago when Henry went to pick up the car to go to the hospital? At that time my car was locked in the garage. This time we were locked out of the garage. Fortunately Shannon walked up right as we pulled up. We needed all of the hands we could get to unload our garbage bags of inflated balloons and balls.

After freaking out on the sidewalk because I could not leave my car, I was finally the last person to enter the building. Mohamed told me that he would have been happy to open the garage for me. Too late. Henry had already taken the car back home. I finally made it downstairs. We set up her cake, put the balls in the gym and then tried to get all of the drinks on one table and food on the other. It was haphazard at best.

But we had balls. Lots of balls. And in the end, that’s all that mattered. These two-year olds had a lot of fun chasing them around.

Balloons are fun. But this is how I felt making this balloon bouquet. I had no idea something so simple would be so hard. Why?!?

Straws are fun, too.

And for my moral support, there was wireless.

Throw in a few rounds of ring-around-the-roses and it was a perfect day.

Plus everyone was dry when we returned home. That was a definite plus.

By the end of the day, I concluded that the beach balls were the answer to a simple regular play date. I have spent the last few months thinking about pop-up play ideas. How can we create play spaces simply? A bunch of beach balls in a gym is very quick and easy way. So I am hoping that we can open up the church gym to the community on a regular basis. Families can pick up food to eat. Afterward their kids can run around chasing balloons and balls. The only thing missing is an electronic air pump, which is also available at beachballs.com.