{"id":4303,"date":"2013-05-28T21:51:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T04:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/?p=4303"},"modified":"2018-09-30T13:46:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-30T20:46:44","slug":"how-she-got-a-carnival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/2013\/05\/28\/how-she-got-a-carnival\/","title":{"rendered":"How she got a carnival with pony rides for her 4th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motherhood can pack a walloping dose of guilt at times, especially when your 4-year-old’s birthday lands at a particularly inconvenient moment with regards to time, money, health, energy, or even a working phone. This sense of guilt can then be further intensified when she patiently and politely reminds you 2 months later that you promised her a birthday party with cake and presents and friends.<\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

So I had to come up with something fast, and just Mommy and Daddy around the dinner table with a cupcake wasn’t going to cut it. There had to be a party. And there had to be kids.<\/p>\n

So now what?<\/p>\n

Then my cousin, Amanda, came up with the most brilliant idea ever: her daughter’s school was having a spring carnival – we could meet up there, and then have cake and presents after.<\/p>\n

So Gem and I baked brownies for her cake, and then we bought a bunch of frosting and decorations, and we put the girls to work decorating her birthday cake. \u00a0This was a job they took very seriously.<\/p>\n

\"cake-43\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Doesn’t that just look delicious?<\/p>\n

\"cake-2\"<\/p>\n

Yes, of course the grownups all politely made yummy faces as we each dutifully ate a piece. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

And then there was the carnival.<\/p>\n

There was a climbing wall: That’s my baby, waaaaaaaaay up there.<\/p>\n

\"climbing-wall\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And pony rides!<\/p>\n

\"horses\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A hug for the pony.<\/p>\n

\"horse-kiss\"<\/p>\n

Face painting, temporary tattoos, and her bestest friend.<\/p>\n

\"tattoos\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She got her big day, and she didn’t need to know this entire carnival was not just for her birthday. \u00a0Let’s keep that between us, ok? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Motherhood can pack a walloping dose of guilt at times, especially when your 4-year-old’s birthday lands at a particularly inconvenient moment with regards to time, money, health, energy, or even a working phone. This sense of guilt can then be further intensified when she patiently and politely reminds you 2 months later that you promised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[761,694,138],"tags":[349,533,591,272,244],"class_list":["post-4303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-living-well","category-living-well","category-parenting-living-well","tag-birthdays","tag-celebrate","tag-childhood-2","tag-gem","tag-party","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?fit=1461%2C974","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?fit=1461%2C974",1461,974,false]},"categories_names":{"761":{"name":"Family","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/living-well\/family-living-well\/"},"694":{"name":"Living Well","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/living-well\/"},"138":{"name":"Parenting & Family","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/parenting-living-well\/"}},"tags_names":{"349":{"name":"birthdays","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/birthdays\/"},"533":{"name":"celebrate","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/celebrate\/"},"591":{"name":"childhood","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/childhood-2\/"},"272":{"name":"gem","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/gem\/"},"244":{"name":"party","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/party\/"}},"comments_number":0,"wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"cvmm-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?resize=300%2C300",300,300,true],"cvmm-medium-plus":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?resize=305%2C207",305,207,true],"cvmm-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?resize=400%2C600",400,600,true],"cvmm-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?resize=600%2C600",600,600,true],"cvmm-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?resize=1024%2C974",1024,974,true],"cvmm-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?resize=130%2C95",130,95,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/horses.jpg?fit=1461%2C974",1461,974,false]},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1fDeG-17p","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":108,"url":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/2006\/05\/14\/mothers-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":4303,"position":0},"title":"Mother’s Day","author":"Judy Schwartz Haley","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"My dad finally emailed me these pictures from Grandma's 95th birthday party, She turned 95 January 11, 2006. I thought they were fitting pictures to post on mothers day.She's amazing. The day after these pictures were taken she set off on a road trip across the states.I hope I look\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/living-well\/daily-life-living-well\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"grandmasbday2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/45\/147984340_77d0b2eabd_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":239,"url":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/2008\/06\/20\/how-to-get-rid-of-leftover-cake\/","url_meta":{"origin":4303,"position":1},"title":"How To Get Rid of Leftover Cake","author":"Judy Schwartz Haley","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"made a deep layer of leftover cake, topped it with a layer of drunk strawberries and then topped that with a layer of drunk whipped cream and repeated until everything was gone.","rel":"","context":"In "Food"","block_context":{"text":"Food","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/life-skills\/food-living-well\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/bird-2.png?fit=640%2C457&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/bird-2.png?fit=640%2C457&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/bird-2.png?fit=640%2C457&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":96,"url":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/2006\/05\/05\/bebes-birthday\/","url_meta":{"origin":4303,"position":2},"title":"Bebe’s Birthday","author":"Judy Schwartz Haley","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Bebe turns four next month and I just came up with a brilliant idea for her birthday present - but I've got to get going on it right away or I'll never get it done in time.Through Qoop.com (anyone used them? comments?) i can create a bound picture book -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/living-well\/daily-life-living-well\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":311,"url":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/2008\/09\/12\/happy-birthday-mom\/","url_meta":{"origin":4303,"position":3},"title":"Happy Birthday Mom","author":"Judy Schwartz Haley","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Karen Lu Schwartz For more about Mom: My Mother's Gift The Birds and the Bees Mom in Ballard \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/living-well\/family-living-well\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Karen Lu Schwartz and Michael H. 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