A is for alphabet, B is for birthday, C is for cake. . .

We had Tristan's birthday party on Saturday. He loves and has always loved the alphabet so I did an ABC theme. We sent invitations to some of his nursery friends and didn't expect many to come. At the beginning of the week we were planning on only 3 guests. By Saturday 7 guests had RSVPd. Good thing I bought extra party favors!
When the guests arrived I took their individual pictures by a wall that we decorated with colorful letters. Then they moved on to the craft table to make a key chain with alphabet beads. Then we had a story time where I read a library book called, "The Absolutely Awful Alphabet" and one of Tristan's favorite books, "Dr. Seuss's ABC Book". I have that one memorized so I was able to get the kids involved and have a lot of fun with it.
The next activity was a game. We have a little game that has an animal for every letter of the alphabet. Chris hid the animals in the other room and each child was able to find 2-3 animals and place them on their spot on the mat. While we did this Chris went to pick up the pizza. . . .Did I mention D is for DISASTER? This is where things fell apart a little bit. I ordered online the night before so I wouldn't have to do it the day of the party. When Chris went to pick up the pizza in Hillsoborough they didn't have a history of our order. I guess the last time I ordered pizza I picked it up from the Durham location and the information was saved on the computer. So after a few phone calls we found the pizza and we had the kids play outside on the play set for the few extra minutes it took.
The pizza was good and then we had cupcakes. I made colorful letters out of candy melts but the kids really liked the frosting. Tristan had a great time and I think all the guests did too. They got to go home with a fun party bag with their names spelled out on the front in foam letters. Inside they each had a Cookie Monster ABC book, ABC cards, a T-shirt with their first initial embroidered on the front and a frame to decorate with shapes and letters. We'll send them a photo of themselves to put in the frame when we send thank-you cards.

I reminded Chris before the party that it had been 2 1/2 years since I had done a theme party for any of our kids and that we would probably remember why we have been having Kennedy's parties at places like Build-a-Bear. We remembered. . . .