Isabella's 4th Birthday Party

Today was Isabella's 4th birthday party. Several weeks ago I decided that I wanted to cook a full meal for everyone coming to the party. So call me a glutton for punishment, I cooked the following for over 30 ppl -

• Green lentil dahl with spinach (Indian)
• Creamed chicken with cashews and raisens (Indian)
• Cauliflower and carrots baked in olive oil with garam masala (pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom)
• Fresh green salad
• White rice
• Yellow cake with milk chocolate ganache frosting (decorations with white chocolate ganache)
• Almost a gallon of chocolate ice cream

About a day into the 2 day cooking process I was kicking myself pretty hard for taking so much on. The cooking wasn't necessarily so hard, but add the whole while-watching-2-kids part it all gets a bit overwhelming. My friend Darcy saved the day by coming to help for the last 2 home stretch hours before the party started. Thank you Darcy! Anyway in the end the food turned out great and I'm glad I did it.

Once all the guests were done filling up on Indian food, cake, and ice cream, the present opening began.

The delight was, well, delightful! "Look Mom, Uncle Heath gave me a PLANE!!!"

Isabella's friends pitched in and helped with the present opening. Perhaps rather than 'helped' I should say that it was a complete FRENZY of excited kids ripping open presents. Seriously... ravenous present opening warriors.

We gave Isabella a Drs kit and a Drs costume. She immediately put the costume on and wore it (mask and all) for the remainder of the party.

The fun lasted well into the evening after the guests left. Isabella and John made fresh whipped cream with her little toy mixer (from Jeanette, Ray, and Sylvie). Seriously, the cream actually whipped up inside this little battery powered toy!

And Isabella used her new Drs kit on Ellie. She took Ellie's blood pressure and even gave Ellie a shot of medicine.



At the end of the day, Isabella did not want to leave her toys behind, so we allowed her to take some into bed with her for the night. So cute!

All in all, a truly wonderful day. Good food, good friends, happy frolicking kids. What more could I want in life?

Thank you Mary, Heath, Austin, Michael, Ryan, Kai, Cindy, Mike, Charlotte, Jeanette, Ray, Sylvie, Topher, Marjorie, Henry, Mohammed, Kahina, Antionette, JohnE, Jean Mikel, Pachi, Maetesha, Bill, Maddie, Ran, Yonatan, Ella, Adam, Marcie, Peter, and Elise for sharing it with us.