We celebrated Fallon's and Porter's third birthday last weekend. The party began at the community playground just in front of our house, where the kids, neighbors, and a bunch of Toni's friends from the twins club played and ate snacks. Porter and Fallon spent most of their time on the swing set, their new favorite thing to do at the playground. They haven't learned how to swing themselves yet, so we have to push them, motivated by excited shouts of "higher, higher!".
The weather was cool and a little rainy but not wet enough to dampen the celebration.
Toni had arranged for pony rides for all of the guests, from a guy known as Buckaroo Bob. She made the arrangements a week or so in advance, but was unable to reach Bob in the days approaching the party in order to confirm everything.
All fifteen or so kids at the party were eagerly awaiting a pony ride. But we weren't really sure if the pony's were going to show.
One of the guests noticed a horse trailer drive by the turn into our street. Within a few minutes he made his way back down the hill, found our street then parked his old pick-up and trailer (with three ponies) in front of our house.
Toni went up to greet Bob while I hung out with Porter and Fallon who entertained themselves by digging in the playground's sandbox. Occasionally I'd look up towards the house and see Toni running a pony up and down the street, apparently getting them warmed up for the kids.
A half hour passed before she yelled down for everyone to come up to the house. All of the kids were extremely excited. Buckaroo Bob gathered everyone around and explained how things would proceed; and then he asked if the birthday kids were ready to ride. Porter and Fallon, however, weren't having any of it. Though they both went on horse rides during this summer's town Fourth of July celebration, they absolutely refused to get on these ponies. Rather than being intimidated by the ponies themselves, I think they just didn't want to be the center of attention. So, all the other kids went for a ride while we watched on.
Despite being observers we still had a good time. Afterwards, the kids were allowed to feed the ponies carrots. Then Buckaroo Bob loaded them up and rode away.
At that point, the party moved into the house for pizza, cake, and gifts. I managed to get a few pictures with my new Canon 40d, which I had recieved by mail the day before.
Porter really liked his cake and especially blowing out the candles. Fallon was content with looking at her cake, and refused to allow anyone to cut into it. Toni did the cake decorations herself. Porter's had Zaboo and Fallon's had Kipper and Pig, from each's favorite Sprout TV show.
Slowly, all of the guests left. Porter and Fallon were exhausted, so we got them to bed for a nap (and a chance for Toni and I to nap too).
When they woke up they got to open all of the presents from the guests. Porter's favorite was a gift from our neighbor, Carole - a set of stuffed sea animals shaped like bowling pins, and a couple stuffed bowling balls. He's been sleeping with "his friends" as he calls them, since then.
Fallon probably likes the helium balloons from the party the most - two big ponies and a bunch of colored balloons. She carried them around the house with her each day, until they slowly lost their bouyancy.
Lastly, we took them upstairs where their presents from us were waiting. Toni had taken them to Toy's R Us a couple weeks earlier, where they each picked out what they wanted. Fallon picked out sparkly pink bicicycle with training wheels, and Porter picked out a Diego scooter.
I pieced together a few minutes of video from their day. We all had a great time, and it was wonderful to see them so happy and playing with their toys.