Kenna's Birthday

Kenna's 3rd birthday was nearly buried amidst an extremely busy weekend, but it turned out to be a very special afternoon. We spent the morning at church rehearsing for the Kids' Street Live program, which both Ted and I acted in, but it was actually a treat for all the kids except Lucan, who wasn't very impressed with Mom and Dad leaving him every so often. Kenna had a blast dancing during the music and playing with other kids in the play place.

After a desperately-needed naptime, we did cake and presents here at home. The lemon cake mix with Grandma K's yummy glaze was a hit and (I think) made up for the fact that I had forgotten to buy ice cream! Kenna got some cute gifts and oohed and aahed appropriately. Then we went to the bowling alley on base. Kenna had never been bowling before and was very excited, thanks to the prompting of her siblings, who were thrilled to get to go bowling again. I've taken Tobin and Arden for our dates recently, and Charis was a little put out that she hadn't been as well, but the promise that we'd go for Kenna's birthday was a soothing balm for pre-tween angst.

It was pretty crowded at the bowling alley, but we were able to get two lanes together. The first few frames Kenna had help actually shoving the ball down the lane, but then a "dinosaur" became free, and she LOVED being able to do everything herself. Hindsight being 20-20, Ted and I now realize we should not have bothered to try bowling ourselves; a fussy Lucan made for a difficult time concentrating on the game, and between trying to feed him and remind the kids to stay off the wood, well, it was pretty much chaos. But happy chaos, I suppose--the kids seemed to have a great time! One game was enough for us, however. Based on the final scores, it was obvious that Mommy could have used some help from the dinosaur, as Kenna scored much higher than I did, LOL.

Afterward, I said goodbye to Ted and the kids and escaped for some much-needed girl time at Panera, where the moms from our family community group met for our monthly discussion and prayer time. Ted took the kids home and let them watch a couple of episodes from the first season of The Muppet Show, which we had checked out from the library the day before. All in all, Kenna seemed to have a very good birthday. She was all smiles for most of the day and kept telling us, "Happy Birthday!"