Party girl

Oh, how easy it is to throw the perfect kids' party. All it takes is a new Children's Museum in town that offers a party package complete with pizza, cake and juice boxes.

Tah dah!

Seriously, all I had to do was show up with goody bags for the kids. And bring my children, of course. But that's about it.

There was no cleaning involved. The kids got to play for an hour on all the new exhibits. And then the pizza showed up.

Awesome!

We had lots of little ballerinas in the house (friends from dance class), plus family friends and - most exciting of all - Patrick, also known as Paddy. He's the boy in green and the continuing love of Sydney's life. Remember the boy she held hands with in the end-of-year program for school readiness? Same boy. And he came to her birthday party and remembered how much she loves Barbie fairy princesses. (Sigh of contentment from Sydney)

I was beyond amazed that with so many kids there, and so many toys already at home, Sydney did not receive a single duplicate gift. (Sigh of contentment from Mommy)

Check out the cake! I think back to the "Dora looking like she got into someon's eyeliner" birthday cake I once decorated myself and can't help but think, this is totally the way to go!

Sydney had fun. Her friends had fun. Her friends' parents all commented on what a great party it was. And I didn't have to clean my house when we were through. (Well, actually I did, but not because of a party mess.)

On a side note, I just spent some time looking back at what I posted about her birthday on previous years. Here she is:

at age two and at age three.

How fun it is to see how much she and her friends have changed. How lucky we are to have such wonderful friends!