A Play-Full Party

On Saturday, we celebrated Joshua's 3rd birthday with our family & friends at Gymboree of Lancaster. We booked the entire place from 4-5:30 pm, hoping that it would be between naps and dinner time so the kids could enjoy the maximum play time possible.We arrived 20 minutes early to set up the cake and get the kids acclimated to the environment. Both boys were enjoying playing with all the various equipment set up.Next to arrive was Jasmine & Austin (friends from LHOP), followed by my MOPS friend Margie & her son Henry (pictured below).

Pretty soon Grandma & Ken arrived with Jen's three girls Grace, Faith & Emma. Here's Mom with John, my youngest nephew, and Great Grandma Good is in the background.Here are Grace & Emma.

Brian & Gayle arrived next with Grant & Jenavieve. I don't remember thereafter because everyone else was late at that point...and Joshua was anxious to get started!
And Caleb was happy just to play!I loved this picture of the boys 'see-sawing' in the boat.Below are Isabella & Abby, daughters of our lifegroup friends.And here's Daddy & Caleb, enjoying hanging out together.And the happy Momma girl, who felt like she might sweat to death. :) :) :)We chose the theme "trains" since Joshua loved his experience at "Day Out with Thomas" and continues to talk about riding on the train. He was excited when they said that we were going to pretend to be trains. The first group activity was a tunnel that they crawled through and 'chugged' and whistled in.All the kids (or at least most) got in line to go through...here comes cousin Daniel.And next Henry decided to take a turn!Even Caleb decided it looked like fun and took a turn...He looked at the Gymboree host to make sure she was okay with him coming through the green ring.Afterward, Austin asked Joshua if he wanted to go in the boat together. Other kids heard "boat" and ran for it. Poor Austin didn't get to go in for a looong time, but I was amazed at his patience in waiting for an opportunity.Finally someone got up and I helped him jump in next to Joshua!And they both enjoyed riding!Soon the party hosts were calling folks back over for the 'train' ride. When they asked me what he liked last year, I remembered he liked this log roll. They say "children, children, sitting on a wall...children, children, had a great fall" and they roll it forward so the kids fall off of it (gently onto a mat). Joshua thought this was FANTASTIC! I think the other kids loved it, too. From left to right there's Grace, Lael, Austin, Joshua, Genevieve and Emma (with other kids on the outskirts).This time, Joshua was in between Isabella & Emma. He rode every time!At this point, I was wondering where Caleb got to. He was being entertained by Nonie!Here's a group shot of the play room.Next, they rolled out the parachute and broke out the bubbles. They said that Joshua got the first round of bubbles to himself for being the birthday boy, but that didn't work out too well. Soon the rest of the kids joined the couple in the front.After bubble time, which was a huge hit, it was parachute time. We sang songs and ruffled the parachute while the kids were on top, then we let the kids go under and pulled it up and down.And we all made a big 'tent' with it, too. Caleb in particular thought this part was F-U-N! He squeeled with delight and ran all around underneath the parachute, laughing and clapping his hands.While this picture is kind of fuzzy, it shows Caleb next to Ben, Shawn's cousin's Don's son (say that ten times fast!). After parachute time, it was time for cake. I bought the cake at Giant, and I thought they did a great job decorating it.It tasted good, too!Here's the birthday boy, blowing out his candles!And chewing on his fingers...which he's been doing a lot lately (what a great way to catch germs - UGH!).And here are other folks enjoying the quick treat before heading back for more play time!Soon the party was over and it was time to hand out the goodie bags and balloons to our family & friends. We loaded the gifts into our car and headed home to open them after a special birthday dinner. Here's the Bean with his gift from Nonie & Poppy...Here are Joshua & Caleb trying to play with the clock from Grandma & Ken.And a picture of Joshua with some of his presents. It was a really fun day!