Preschool friends

Noah loves birthday parties! We got to attend a fabulous birthday party for Noah's four year old friend, Seren, this weekend. There were preschoolers galore at the party, plus a couple of younger babies (not walking). We spent the first 20 minutes warming up to the idea of joining the growing crowd in the pavilion at the park, despite being the first to arrive! He didn't want to participate in the birdhouse painting activity, just wanted to watch.

Noah was almost old enough to keep up with the older kids, and had a ball doing the scavenger hunt with them. Each clue was a bit involved, but the bottom line was they had to look for some object/place to find the next clue or the treasure. The last clue was to "go down the path and find the water." Noah totally got this one! All the preschoolers marched down the path, and Noah ran behind them, trying to keep up. They were excited to find the treasure at the end -- each had a little bag of party favors waiting for them. Noah looked at the contents (pretzels, dried fruit, and a little plastic lizard), and then looked ahead and saw the lake. "LOOK, THE WATER!!" He turned around and yelled as loud as he could to the preschoolers, "TO THE WATER, EVERYONE!!! COME ON!!!!"

He timed it perfectly, just as everyone had finished looking in their bags and the excitement had subsided to a quiet drone. Their heads turned, and for a minute, it looked like all 10 of them were going to sprint to the water! At this point, Sam, who was the sole chaperone of the group, warded off the image of all 10 running into the lake, saying, "no, it's time to go back now, we got our treasure. Follow me."

Here was my little hesitant boy, suddenly encouraging a huge group of older children to run with him to the water! Perhaps he will be a measured leader someday in the future. :) I accompanied him to the water, along with one or two others whose parents were with them (the rest had stayed back at the pavilion), and he threw in a couple of sticks before we went back for cake.

Once the birthday cake came out, Noah was ready. He did his 10 or so renditions of happy birthday to Seren, and kept singing it on the playground. I think Seren liked the extra attention. :) On the way back, he was out like a light in the car within 5 minutes of saying, "I don't want to take a nap," his unpainted birdhouse resting on his lap. Thanks to Megan and Sam for a great party! For pictures and a detailed party description, visit Megan's blog.