Birthday Festivities...post-5

Emily's 3rd of her 3 birthday parties was at a local bowling alley. Emily had only been to watch momma bowl once last fall, but had wanted to go herself ever since.

All her friends from daycare were invited...14 in all showed up. Plus the 6 children of Momma's friends for a whopping total of 20! Wow. Emily was soooo excited for weeks before-hand! In fact, she kept saying "my friends from daycare won't know your friends from work, so I'm going to line them up and introduce everyone." What an idea from a 5 year old!!

Everything went smoothly... the kids had a blast, no one fought, or cried, or shoved or did anything that a group of more than 1 might do. This daycare group is really a good bunch of friends, and Momma's friends fit in so nicely that Emily was just a little flutterbee going lane to lane, friend to friend..... Daddy often had to go searching for her when it was her time to bowl...
(Top picture shows friends plus Zach watching his ball make it down the lane. Second picture shows Emily (lower right w/ curls) checking out Momma and the friends on adjacent lanes.)

Emily taking a turn w/ from top Jessica, Carly and best friend Lily... And again w/ Daddy watching....
And Daddy helping Zachary.... For a little boy, it was a sight to see him carrying a 6# ball around!
Then it was time for pizza... And cake....
And finally presents! (Zachary... right side, just below Momma.... apparently couldn't bear to watch sister w/ any more presents!)
She got a lot of barbies... but I don't know what happened to the good ole' fashioned dolls. This one is Princess Genevieve. She spins and dances w/ controls that Emily wears on her arms and leg. She also got a barbie butterfly, and a barbie fairy that acts as a remote control for a video story. It's Blue Eyes himself getting some of his own attention!

And Emily w/ the work friends...Alex, Julia Samantha and Anna...

It was go, go, GO from 12:30 until 2:30 on the dot! (The bowling alley had a nifty timer that turned off the lanes automatically. Talk about a nice way to get people out the door!) And after another 1/2 hour of clean up (which didn't have to be done, but Momma doesn't know how to walk out on a mess we made), and hauling out the presents to the truck, we were finally on our way for a much needed rest! (The kids had good naps too!)