It's her party

Amelia won't turn five until April 20, but we celebrated her big day with friends and family on April 11. Although we would have preferred to not have her party on Easter weekend, it became necessary when we learned that was the only time in April our local community center was available to rent. I went ahead and booked the center because I am not about to host a party at my house because it is close to bursting at the seams without having more than 15 party guests crammed into it. Plus, I get anxious just thinking about all the cleaning that would be necessary in order to have a party at the house.

Six of Amelia's best buddies attended the "Little Einsteins"-themed shindig. Everyone seemed to enjoy her butterfly-shaped cupcake cake, and the parrot pinata was a huge hit. Nathaniel, or "Mufaniel" as Amelia calls him, wasted no time in taking on the pinata. He may be five, but that kid has the swing of a veteran baseball player.

Nathaniel hit the parrot with such force that he was able to knock it to the ground where he could whack it with all his might. He'd of burst it wide open had his mom not stepped in (while trying to avoid the sticking flying precariously close to her head) and stopped him so the rest of the guests could have a turn. After everyone else took a few swings at the bird, Nathaniel got another chance, and as expected, was the one who released the candy it.

Everyone at the party got a kick out of Nathaniel's enthusiasm, however, his mom was concerned word is going to get out about her little man's pinata-hitting skills causing him to forever be relegated to back of the line. I assured her no one at Amelia's party was upset with him. In fact, the kids were thrilled he was able to beat the candy out of the pinata because they were more than eager to get their hands on all that loot.

The kids also tried their hand at pinning Rocket on a map of the United States and played a rousing game of musical chairs, which resulted in a few tears, a brief shoving match and more than one warning to stop running. Nathaniel took home the prize for pinning Rocket closest to The Grand Canyon and Amelia won first place in musical chairs, a feat about which she is still bragging (I remind her that it's not nice to gloat, but she's not quite embraced the concept because she just looks as me with a pout to indicate I am stealing her thunder and carries on chanting, "I won, I won. I am number one.")

Our friends and family gave Amelia some of the nicest presents. She received a Tricky Triplets Barbie, four various Littlest Pet Shop toys, two Little Einsteins toys, a slew of Hello Kitty goodies, a Fancy Nancy game and travel toy, and a Barbie movie. She also got Moon Sand, something which she has been begging for ever since she saw an informercial about it forever ago.

Although I was completely exhausted at the end of the day, I am extremely proud to have been able to share in Amelia's special day with our terrific friends and family. We are truly blessed and lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives.

The downside of spending the weekend partying and celebrating Easter is that I am now swamped with laundry and other household chores that I ignored over the weekend, which is when I usually try to tackle them. I swear I heard my washing machine groan as I loaded the fourth load of the day into it last night.