The Birthday Extravaganza

At some point, when your family grows to six children, you have to start making certain logistical decisions.

Like whether you're going to spend every other weekend hosting a birthday party for the rest of your natural life.

We decided against that.

Instead, we consolidated everyone's birthdays into one giant annual celebration, which we somewhat ambitiously named the Birthday Extravaganza.

Six kids. One party. All the birthday cakes.

And honestly? It's become one of my favorite days of the year.

This year's Extravaganza was everything I hoped it would be. Sunshine, balloons, bounce houses, a video game truck, a whole lot of cake, and a wonderful collection of friends and family who were willing to spend their Saturday celebrating all six of our children at once.

The best part was watching how differently everyone experienced it.

The older kids had their own priorities. The video game truck was a major attraction, and they spent plenty of time doing their own thing. At their ages, a good party involves a certain amount of independence from the adults, preferably with unlimited access to entertainment and snacks.

The little kids were delighted by absolutely everything. The bounce houses, the balloons, the excitement of having so many people around. There was always something to investigate, climb, eat, or run toward.

James, our newly minted four-year-old, was right in the middle of the action. Four is such a wonderful age for a party. Old enough to understand that something amazing is happening, young enough to embrace every second of it without reservation.

In fact, he was having so much fun that we had to sing Happy Birthday twice.

We'd gathered everyone around the cakes and launched into the song when, somewhere around "Are you there? Are you four?" we realized that James was, in fact, not there.

He was still in the bounce house.

So we retrieved the birthday boy and started over.

Kate danced with me, which was one of my favorite moments of the entire afternoon. I love dancing, and getting to share that with my little girl at our family party was pretty much perfect.

And then there was Ash, who needed a little instruction on the proper way to approach a smash cake.

Apparently, nobody had told him that when someone puts an entire cake in front of you, you're allowed to just dive in.

So I demonstrated by taking a bite directly out of the side.

His expression was priceless.

A whole new world of possibilities had just opened up.

I highly recommend being the person who introduces a toddler to the concept of eating cake with absolutely no rules.

And of course, Lily, our littlest birthday girl, got to experience the madness in her own baby-sized way. One day she'll look at the pictures and see just how enthusiastically we celebrated her first year.

But here's something I've learned about the Birthday Extravaganza: it's not just for the kids.

The adults had a pretty fantastic time, too.

There was plenty of catching up with friends, enjoying the beautiful afternoon, and watching the kids run around having the time of their lives. And there was dancing!

Not everyone was quite as enthusiastic about getting on the dance floor, but a few of us were more than happy to make up for it. There's something wonderful about dancing outside on a beautiful afternoon, surrounded by friends, with the kids running around and the music playing.

I'm not sure when children's birthday parties started becoming one of my favorite opportunities to dance with my friends, but I'm certainly not complaining.

And I have to admit something.

For a few years, these big family celebrations were events I mostly tried to get through. I put enormous effort into making them wonderful for everyone else, but by the time the day arrived, I was often too overwhelmed to enjoy much of it myself.

This year was different.

I had so much fun.

Not the relieved, thank goodness everything went okay kind of fun. Actual, genuine, laughing-and-dancing-and-eating-cake fun.

I loved seeing the kids happy. I loved being surrounded by our friends and family. I loved watching all six of our children celebrate together, each in their own completely different way.

And I loved being part of it instead of just making it happen.

We even had a photographer there, so in addition to the wonderfully chaotic phone pictures everyone has been sending me, we'll have beautiful photos to remember the day.

Because I really do want to remember it.

The cakes. The dancing. Ash discovering that cakes can be eaten from the side. Kate dancing with me. James missing his own birthday song. The older kids disappearing into the video game truck. The little ones bouncing and running and laughing.

All of us together.

Six children, one enormous birthday party, and more happiness than I could possibly have planned.

And this year, I think I had as much fun as anyone.