Last Saturday we had a big 4th birthday bash for Grady. It had a little bit of everything: two cakes, scavenger hunt, tons of presents, a bbq, beer and face painting. Mercy did an incredible job of taking care of everything. About the only thing I did was do a couple of runs to the store, bbq the food, and of course the traditional “put in some baseboards while you rearrange the furniture” that happens at all 4 year old birthday parties.

From 11am to 2pm we had something like 20 kids over for games and cake. Most of them were from Grady’s preschool. Grady wanted to invite most (all?) of his classmates, and at this age we thought it would be somewhat cruel to start excluding kids so we invited everyone. Downstairs Mercy set up space for crafts, face painting, and a scavenger hunt. Along with the cake and presents and the kids were pretty busy for the full 3 hours.

Then around 4 – 5pm people started trickling in for a bbq. We served some veggies and salads and I barbequed salmon on cedar planks. Mercy’s parents also brought over 10kg of oysters which I put on the barbeque. I think we about 15 adults over for dinner. I ended up passing out with the kids around 10 or 10:30. Mercy stayed up a bit later with the last of the guests.

Whereas Mercy did most of the work leading up to the party, I spent almost a full day cleaning. Saturday evening I cleaned for about 2 hours. Then starting Sunday morning around 8am I started cleaning again and finished around 5pm. A lot of work was needed in re-organizing the toys because Grady had received so many new ones, it was crazy.

Click on the pictures below to see the whole album from the bday party!