Quinn's Birthday - 9/20ish

About a month ago we joined Quinn and his parent's in their new house in Alameda for his third Birthday party. the party was on the 20th, but I am not sure what day was Quinn's actually birthday. He is getting to be so grown up, and there have been so many changes recently.First his new house, and then the Monday following his party he was going to a new school, its a scary thought but he was turning three, so he had to start a new school. Its kinda scary how services are simply turned off.Quinn had Fragile X like Holly, for those of you who don't know him from reading his mom Sarah's blog. I was so impressed with how well Quinn was doing at his party, he was having so much fun.His mom attributes it to his being around so many familiar faces, kids and grown-ups that he sees often and knows well. I can attest from experience with Holly that does make a huge difference with comfort levels.Holly was having so much fun at Quinn's place, she was running around and playing with all of his toys, she particularly liked the Kitchen he had set up, and even climbed up on his table and chairs.Another favorite was his ride on car. She still doesn't know how to propel herself forward, although she is slowly getting the hang of it occasionally going backwards, but she loves climbing on and off.Another favorite was the Ball Pit. Quinn was a little monkey and he was climbing all over the couch and jumping on top of the ball pit. It was great. There is a little girl in the first picture of the post who is one of his closest buddies.She used to live next door to him in Albany and would always come and play with him. She was carrying him and tossing him around and he loved it. Lots of energy to share, and i bet it gets his vestibular and proprioceptive systems really going.Holly really liked that there was a little door she could use to climb in and out of the ball pit on her own. At home we use her pack and play, so although she can climb onto the couch and then into it, she really needs our help.She also loves throwing out the balls and watching them bounce, I am not sure if she would like it as much if they weren't super deep, like they are now, though I have thought about alternative containers like a little tent.In addition to the living room the kids were running back and forth down the hall to Quinn's bedroom to play. he had a lot of really fun toys in there for Holly to explore and of course pull off of the shelves.Originally the party was going to be in the back yard, and knowing how much Quinn and Holly both love the water table, I dressed her in a swimming suit. But Sarah and Zach were having work done on the house and the contractors left all his gear outside.There was so much stuff for the little ones to get into that they decided to keep the party indoors. Which was fine, there new house had so much space to stretch out and easily accommodated the group.Lisa and her Daughter Samantha, who also just recently turned three a few weeks before Quinn were in attendance at the party. I keep meaning to try and get together with them, they live a block away, but Lisa works so the schedule has been hard.There were lots of really good snacks to eat at the party, especially for the little ones, puffs, pirate bootie, gold fish, o's. And for lunch we all had yummy pizza. It was really good. You can tell Holly liked it, she is trying to steal a bite from Tanta Kat.

Then we had the yummy Cake. There were these cool little cars on them that Zach gave to Quinn to play with after we sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candles. He was having a blast with them.It was a really pretty cake, and yummy too. We had so much fun at the party, but Holly was starting to get cranky and the afternoon was upon us, and she was ready for a nap. So we left shortly afterwards. Happy Birthday Quinn, Thanks for inviting us and sharing your Birthday with us.