Zianne’s “Favorite Things” Birthday Party

As I mentioned earlier, we threw two birthday parties for Zianne… one in Seattle where it was surprisingly warm and sunny and one in Phoenix where it was surprisingly cold and wet… like crazy flash flooding, roof leaking wet.

My dear friend Shalyn and I decided to throw a joint-birthday party for our babies who were born just six days apart {all three of them since she has twins!}. To keep the party gender neutral we chose a “favorite things” theme – planes, books, music, animals, etc. Our plan was to host this party at the local train park which is about halfway between our houses. We rented a picnic ramada, bought teal and navy decorations, Shalyn made the cutest Little Blue Truck cutout for photos, and we made a bunch of cupcakes. We were set for a low-key first birthday at the park. We chose the last weekend in September hoping the weather would be slightly cooler than all the sunny 100 degree days that make up the first half of the month. Joke was on us…

In the days leading up to the party, we could see rain on the forecast. By Friday, there was an 80% chance of rain for the following afternoon.. But you never know… it’s the desert. Even though we figured it would rain at some point, there was also a good chance it would pour for 20 minutes and then clear up. Plus we had a large covered area rented, so a little rain wouldn’t hurt us.

Saturday morning came and it was perfectly sunny. By noon it was slightly overcast but still not wet. It wasn’t until about 2:00pm that the flood started. And I literally mean a flood. Shalyn and I had been on the phone on and off for 24 hours trying to figure out what to do if it got really stormy. We looked into a few back up options but none of them were very convenient. Finally at 3:00pm the park made our decision for us. They called Shalyn and told her the park was closing down. Apparently, the rain had caused some broken trees in addition to flooding and the property was considered unsafe. So by 3:15pm we set a back up plan in motion. Party at our house. Starting in approximately one hour.

Thankfully, my sister and her boyfriend were visiting, so with both of them and Micah to help me, we had the whole truck unloaded {it was already packed for the park} and the house set up for the party in record time. Never mind the fact that our roof was leaking. We blocked off the leaky area with balloons and string and called it good to go. Within minutes, guests were knocking on the door, drenched from running from their cars to our front porch. It was not exactly the casual party at the park that we had planned, but we are grateful so many family members and friends braved the storm to celebrate with us. And the kids didn’t care about the rain one bit. They were just in it for the cupcakes.