Ryan's 3rd Birthday!

Wow! We had a fantastic birthday party for Ryan…and some older siblings. *ahem* I’m most proud that I kept it [relatively] simple, thus not having to put forth a ton of effort…just before we leave for Hawaii. We looked into renting a bounce house since we have a backyard (which is rare for many expats who mostly live in apartment buildings). I found one place who rented an inflatable water slide for the same price as the bounce houses. Bingo! Seeing as its summer…we thought that it would be perfect. We also bought a small inflatable pool and filled it with sand with we found very cheaply at the Home Depot equivalent here in Shanghai…and then threw in some sand toys we already had. We took out our soccer and baseball toys as well as some balls to throw around in the little pool that comes with the slide. It was a SUMMER FUN theme…and the kids had a blast!

The day was perfect…hot, but without the glaring sun. We, of course, had a TON of the boys’ toys as well, in case any of the kids wanted to come inside to play. I chose a mid afternoon time (1-4 pm) and the kids had a few big bowls of packaged snacks to choose from as well as the finale of choosing between three different cakes to eat! Yum yum!

The entire party was so much fun and it was lots of fun to watch the kiddos enjoy the slide and sand. Almost felt like home. I had been hesitating to host many parties this year…but now that I know where to go to get food items and both we and our kids have many friends…it’s FUN!!! I hope to have a few more this next year.
So, Ryan has turned three in the eyes of his friends…and we had a very good time doing it!