Annada Marie Vergo

Aaron chopping LOTS of strawberries.

Ah… I am happily exhausted. Today was Annada’s 3rd birthday party. Yes – we had one in Omaha too. :). But this was her ORLANDO one. Seize the day… or birthday in this case.

The YearOne men let us use their house for the party. We showed up at 2 pm to find they had spent the morning cleaning it for us. They unloaded our car, decorated the house, rearranged furniture and cut mounds of strawberries. It was a huge blessing.

Robin and her family.

The first people to arrive were Robin’s family. Robin is about 3 months older than Annada and lives across the street. Annada and Robin are adored by the older girls in the neighborhood who aww and oooo over Annada and Robin’s friendship.

Ms. Katrina

Then Ms. Katrina came! Annada had been waiting for this moment all week. The night before at bedtime Annada had gone over and over how Ms. Katrina would come to the door, Annada would open the door and then lead her inside.

Ms. Katrina has been teaching Annada music and art in Kindermusik for the last two years. She is Annada’s hero. Annada could hardly believe it when Ms. Katrina told her in class she would come to Annada’s party. “The for real Ms. Katrina? Not Daddy pretending to Ms. Katrina?” Annada asked breathlessly.

Lexi, Josiah and Brennan playing in Annada's ball tent.

As more friends arrived, the kids played with toys, decorated castanets and colored. I walked around giving out Ariel tattoos.

Rowing our boats down the river.

At 4 pm we started Kindermusik. Ms. Katrina did everything – lots of instruments, scarves, puppet show, dancing, parachute, bubbles, a huge ball, bouncing fish… Annada sat right next to Ms. Katrina.

Watching the puppet show.

Feeding the puppets bubbles. Annada was very serious about making sure her puppet got enough bubbles to eat.

To finish we put Annada in the parachute and sang happy birthday to her. She was so cute, settling right into the middle as we spun her around.

Then we had pizza, chocolate torte and ice cream. When I asked Annada what kind of cake she wanted she said, “chocolate torte.” I’ve never even made one before. I was a little nervous to make it for 40 people the first time. I don’t know where she had chocolate torte before, but it left an impression. Tonight when I was putting her to bed I asked her how today went.

“I was happy at my party, Mommy,” Annada said. “My cake was really yummy.”

Update: Tonight (4 days later) a friend asked Annada what her favorite birthday present was. “My cake!” she replied.

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