Kayla had her first birthday party from her new school friends. This was very exciting for her. If you remember from here, when I spoke to the Birthday Boy’s Mom, she was wonderfully understanding about us coming to play and leave and not stay for the pizza and cake. The party was at Pump It Up. I’ve never heard of it, let alone been there. I’ve since learned they’ve only been open about 1 year and already they’re booking 6 months out for parties. I can see why. This place was amazing! HUGE inflatable slides and obstacle courses and of course “moon bounces”. Kayla had a blast and adored the slide and obstacle course the most. They have 2 rooms and ONLY do private parties, so it doesn’t get crowded and you’re only with people from your party. They have 2 rooms and you spend 40 minutes in each before going to the party room. So they keep a pretty stead flow of parties throughout the day. The rooms are small enough that I could even manage the 2 girls easily by myself. Good to know b/c Monday and Tuesday evenings they do have open family play (but they also limit the number of people). The staff was very nice, the place was extremely clean and there was NO food to contend with in the play rooms. Ah, BLISS! It was actually a pretty relaxing time for me and I was able to stand back, watch her have fun and chat a bit with the other Moms and Dads of her classmates.

Kayla was cute when we got there and she saw the Birthday Boy and another friend from school. She asked me if Miss Danielle was going to be there (her teacher). Every time another child came in that she knew, she got all excited and ran up to them to say “Hi.”.

Her ever growing awareness of her allergies both makes me proud and breaks my heart. When we were getting ready to leave for the party, she asked me if there was going to be dairy-there. So I explained to here that there would be no dairy during the playtime at the party, but that we would have to leave before everyone ate b/c they were having pizza with cheese. I also told her that I would keep watch out for any dairy while she was playing. She was OK with this. But the look on her face when she realized that not only was the fun over, but that we had to leave while all her friends were going in to eat really hurt. She didn’t fight or even cry – she just had this pout on her face, but not a Bratty one – one that just showed how upset she was.

Now some might ask why we didn’t just go in and not eat. I also ask myself that at times. But, she’s contact-reactive, so if I can’t stop a child or an adult from touching her after eating that pizza, we’d have a reaction. If it was a different food, one that was less messy and dangerous I would have stayed – stayed so she could at least sing Happy Birthday to him. But it’s too dangerous – especially with her very possibly being so close to outgrowing. It again, makes me realize that if I can’t get my full with of her outgrowing this allergy fully, I’d even settle for her to lose her contact-reactivity. As we got to the car, she said, “Oh no Mommy, I didn’t sing Happy Birthday to Ethan”. At least she seemed happy enough to learn that they would have cupcakes at school today for his birthday (of course we packed her a safe cupcake).

When we left and said good bye to Ethan, he asked why weren't staying. I told him the pizza will make Kayla sick. It was very sweet b/c he wanted her to stay and that was evident b/c he offered her cake and when that wouldn't work, a donut. He really tried to come up with alternatives so she could stay. He's a sweet boy. It goes to show again, how adabtable kids are. They just accept things and are naturally willing to work around things.

Here are some pictures of her at the party – keep in mind that I will be having some future parties here – it really is an awesome place. Check out their website b/c they have locations all over the country (they have one in Ohio, Chris). Let’s just say it’s good I have a child with no fear b/c these slides were HUGE and STEEP (I went down with her twice and almost chickened out).

Climbing up the stairs to the big slide


Sliding down


The obstacle course


Doing the obstacle course


Kayla in front of the slide


Me and Kayla sliding