I can't believe I forgot to blog about Riley's birthday!

It was so wonderful. As I mentioned in my previous post, we are broke. That combined with school starting made me avoid planning a party until the last minute.

Riley's brother Jack had his birthday party in June. We reserved a park shelter, got favors and decorations, the whole nine. It wasn't over-the-top, but it was more than I've ever done for a birthday. Since Jack's birthday falls during the start of warm weather, weddings, graduations, picnics, etc... not many people came. So when I put out a Facebook invitation less than a week before Riley's party, I wasn't expecting much.

To my surprise, it was HUGE. I want to say there were 13 kids? Plus parents and members of extended family.

But it was simple and wonderful!

The kids played, we had brownie "cake," and it was overall laid back. I told everyone gifts were optional, but Riley ended up with a huddle of kids around him, steadily opening gifts for at least 20 minutes. It was awesome.

Riley had his day, and we had another "typical" experience that we could not have had with the child we had three years ago.

It made my heart happy.