Three years old!

We had a big party for the birthday boy yesterday, at least big for us as we have never had children over for a party yet. We had two of his playmates from daycare and two from my old mum and tot group, and boy was it a mad house. We limited it to two hours over lunch, and I think we had enough stuff to keep them busy, it was just the constant shrieking that got to be exhausting after a while. We gave them all hard hats and got them working on building a carboard spaceship with some dollar store tools. The space ship was mostly made already by me and Ade from a giant box that we conveniently got the week before. The kids spent about half an hour alone taking turns going in and out of the rocket. Also I got a bunch of helium ballons (dollar stores are good for everything) and those were quite a hit too. Lunch was so-so, but they really loved the cake. I got suckered into buying this really fabulous Bob the Builder cake because I saw a picture online and it was so beautiful and I couldn't resist. Ollie was so thrilled that it came with toys on top. The blue and black icing permanently stained all the kids hands and mouths, they went home all looking very ghoulish. It was lots of fun, and I think Ollie had a good time, but that is the last time we are doing that in our house - next year will have to be a skating party or something. We were pretty useless with the camera the whole time - too busy running around after screaming children, or trying to shield Sam or the cat from the overly affectionate attentions of 3 year old girls, but here's a couple: