Tristan goes to his 1st birthday party

Tristan all ready to go!

This is only the second time Tristan has received a birthday invite from a friend of his. The first time was two years ago but I had to cancel at the last minute because he fell sick:( He has been to little kiddie parties before but they were kids who were either related to him or on a couple of rare occasions, who had parents who were friends with either Jean-Louis or I.

Today was exciting because it was the first time he was going to a birthday party from a friend he made himself through daycare. Weeee! I was probably a bit more excited than he was :) When I was a kid, I never went to any kiddie parties outside of the family. After throwing a few birthday parties for Tristan now I can see why kids LOVE parties. Being invited and attending a birthday party as a kid is somewhat like being invited and attending a wedding as an adult. It's just so nice to be thought of and be invited!

The party was held at Michaels, a craft store I frequently visit for baking supplies. Ahem. It's funny because when Jean-Louis heard about where the party was he was like "oh nooooo!" I go to Michaels way too often I guess :) It's such a cool idea actually. I think a craft party there would lots of fun but maybe when Tristan is much older.

There were probably 12-15 kids and Tristan was one of only two boys there. It was a Tinkerbell party but it was great! Tristan knew pretty much every kid there as well since they all came from his daycare room. I was finally able to attach faces to names I heard about from him. I now sort of know who the "good" kids are. It so happens that some of the kids he talks about and likes are also the well behaved kids in the room:) His best buds from daycare were not there though.

When we arrived, some of the kids were already there. Tristan said happy birthday to the birthday girl and gave her her gifts. Tristan and I made her a personalized card the day before :) Then the kids sat down and drew on the table. The table was lined with craft paper so the kids could draw all over it. After we waited a bit longer, we started the crafts. The kids all got aprons to wear and got to work on decorating their own t-shirts. Tristan enjoyed squeezing the bottles of color on it. It was really just like applying royal icing on a cookie and he had done that many times already. Simply squeezing color on the shirt was boring though so we copied some of the other kids and really got down and dirty using our hands and fingers. It started to get messy fast! Moments after we did that though, Tristan whined and wanted to wash his hands right away. You see Tristan does not like to be so dirty. Lol. After we washed his hands we came back and finished off the t-shirt decoration. This time I brought some paper towels and rolled it into a pen and used that to smear and write on the t-shirt. Much better :) By the way, the staff member who supervised during the craft party stayed in the room during the entire party.

After crafts, the kids kind of monkey-ed around with the helium balloons. Then the food arrived and the kids ate. We were served your typical party food of pizza, fruit platter, veggie platter, tortilla chips, juice, water and then cake. Then it was time to leave:( It was a two hour party. Tristan said happy birthday again and gave the birthday girl a hug. Awe:) He went home with his t-shirt, his loot bag, and a helium balloon. Wow. It's almost like it was his birthday too.