As it turns out, I got my answer to that question.
This past Saturday was party-day. Below is a photo of Olivia taken JUST after I got everything set up for the party (note how sunny and non-ominous it looks). This is the only photo I have from the park and I wish now I would have taken more. She was sooo excited to celebrate her sister's special day and could not wait for guests to arrive.
Unfortunately, about 5 minutes after this photo was taken, things took a drastic turn for the worst. Sadly, I do not have an actual photo since the monsoon of rain and winds forced me to shove the camera, ipod, and any other electronics into a plastic bag in a panic. However, this is a video I found online that someone in KC took (presumably from a safe, INDOOR location) which accurately shows what came next:
Weathermen stated that the winds were between 55-70mph in different areas of the metro. We got over 2" of rain in under an hour. Now imagine being outside, under a worthless shelter, with a ton of party decorations, food, guests and kids.
Fun times.
I was on the brink of tears as I watched food and decorations get drenched and blow away. At least a few of the kids were crying (including Olivia) and it was just a chaotic mess. We didn't have a great back up plan because truthfully, we'd been carefuly following the weather and it looked like nothing was going to happen until after 5:00pm (party was from 3:30-5) AND they weren't even sure anything was coming, it very easily could have missed us.
After about 20 minutes of the chaos, when we were pretty sure it wasn't going to let up anytime soon, we decided to pack it all up and invite everyone to our house. Not my favorite idea since my house was nowhere near guest ready but what can you do. I didn't want that to be my only memory of Hailey's birthday.
Matt had to drive the van onto the park grass and under the shelter just so that we could pack everything up and not have it get even more wet and ruined.
Below are photos taken at our house once everyone and everything was dried off (in the photo below, you can see Matt is actually drenched still from head to toe).
Party balloons for the balloon-themed bash which were pretty much the only salvaged decorations--you can see the 3 smaller balloons took a bit of a hit during the storm; I had an entire garbage bag full of them that all got popped or blow away :(
Hailey loved them nonetheless
Only photo of our family from the crazy day and Olivia is not even in it :(
Lisa, Jeff, and Willem
Singing Happy Birthday to Hailey
Olivia blew out the candle
It's smash cake time!
Hmm...what is this?
"claw marks" in the smash cake. I think she liked the frosting.
All clean!
A little wet but so excited to still be havin' a party
Chris, Amy, and Zander
Cake Pops!
Gifts, all dried off
Despite the ruined plans, it was a nice party and we are incredibly grateful to all our friends who helped us get everything packed up and back to the house. I think it's safe to say we'll always remember Hailey's 1st birthday! Happy Birthday Boo! :)
ReplyDeleteWow!!! It's so sad when you try so hard to make everything perfect for that special day and things go wrong. It's good to remember that the most important things of all went well and that no one was hurt. The birthday girl has parents and a sister that loves her completely and the day was filled with memories to be kept for a lifetime and all the children were tucked into their cozy, safe beds at day's end. Love Papa Ray and Gramma Carol.