the ELLA echo

figure 8 is double four

each year is a circle that turns round upon itself.

 

when i became a mother

i had no idea

how close together

birthdays were going to be.

 

yesterday:

 

today:

 

place it on its side and it's a symbol meaning infinity....

surprise!

every fall we host an open house to celebrate the beginning of another year of homeschool.  normally we hold the open house on the last weekend of august but this year, we did a little switcheroo and held it a few weeks later, which allowed us to treat our guests to a little surprise.

when they arrived for the open house, this is what they saw:

 

 

but when they came inside, this is what they saw:

 

that's right, we surprised our guests by holding a birthday party!

 

the reason for making it a surprise was simple:  we didn't want our guests to feel obligated to bring gifts, and we didn't want to discourage friends we knew would stay away if they couldn't afford to bring a gift--we just wanted friends to come and celebrate with us. 

as you can see, the theme was angry birds, our new family obsession.  we made angry birds bean bags and paper mache’ pigs and set up our blocks on a table for the kids to play:

 

and we had a cool bird craft that i neglected to get pictures of before dark (tomorrow, i promise).

this was one of the funnest parties we've ever had, it was so wonderful to get to yell “SURPRISE!” over and over all afternoon!   i wish we could do it every year.

 

*i always enjoy hosting parties but getting them ready wears me out!  i did one thing that made it go a little more smoothly—i put single scoops of ice cream in paper cupcake liners and had them in the freezer ready to serve.  how do you make kids parties easier?