best party ever

It was a grueling wait between my real birthday and my party. Every minute, or sometimes much more frequently, during the week, I would ask my mom "is my party ready yet" and tell her I wanted to put my dress on to go. At long last, Saturday arrived. 

We arrived early to set up the food that my mom had stayed up all night Friday preparing. It was a relatively simple menu - especially compared to previous years - because toddlers generally don't eat at parties. (We proved my mom wrong.) Gone from previous parties were the samosas, caprese pasta salad, and sushi; instead we had fruit, veggies, hummus and pita, chips and dips, and my favorite: organic pickles! Though it was simple this year, my mom had to gather all of the serving dishes, brew the hibiscus mint tea, and cut the fruit and veggies into pieces suitable for toddlers (grapes had to be halved etc). Somehow I managed to sleep soundly while all of this busy work was going on.

We arrived to find Gorgeous Millie set up so beautifully. They had made trains to drive, train tracks, and there was the hugest train table I have ever seen in my whole life. There were train whistles, tickets, a train tent, and books. Anything you can think of that has to do with trains, it was there. I enjoyed playing until my friends arrived. (Beautiful and impeccably mannered Ava was the first guest to
arrive . . . wearing a crown, nonetheless.) I lost count but I hosted about 12 friends and their parents. We all had the best time. I have the nicest friends.  Sadly, there are no photos of us all together because 1) Gorgeous Millie is a large space and 2) we were all moving about at a frantic pace.

While we played, the Gorgeous Millie guide worked at the play doh bar and custom made each guest a batch to take home. We got to pick color, scent, add ins like glitter. Nicholas got cinnamon play doh!

I had requested no gifts for my birthday party since I only wanted to focus on spending time celebrating with my friends. I got a few really nice gifts though. Ava gave me a fun magnetic building set. It's almost like she knows I spend countless hours each and every day building. I also got a white t-shirt that I am proud of. And two books that we read over and over and over. Travis gave me a digger.

This is my mom's favorite photo of the day. Grover appears to be chasing me but I am fast. My dad deserves credit for this photo.

The only hitch we encountered with my party was with the cake. For my previous two parties, I had a cake from Whole Foods and I had fully intended on going through life only ever ordering cake from them. But, alas, the staff at the Whole Foods near us have absolutely no clue what they are doing and they would NOT make me a train cake. really? We went back there almost every day (to get a snack and) to ask every single baker who works there if they would make a train cake. no no no no no NO. Their excuses ranged from "we would have to outsource it" (what is the point of that?) to "we don't have that capacity."

Side note: my mom has a long list of complaints about this new Whole Foods.
They don't sell organic russet potatoes.
They cannot make chai, mocha, or lattes that are worthy of drinking. (Once they even asked my mom how to make chai.)
They won't sell half loaves of bread from the bakery.
Some of their clerks have to ask us to identify vegetables when we are checking out.
They never have slices of pizza ready during the dinner hour.
They only have breakfast tacos with meat in them.

None of these issues are as serious as them not making my cake, however. We took our business elsewhere and watch out Whole Foods: you will be getting a letter from my mom and she is the reason why you have been so profitable. My cake turned out to be cute and it was delicious anyhow. Everyone loved it. HA!