We crossed another hurdle on our tiny house adventure this week…our first major event, Lily Grace’s 3rd birthday. We had a bit of a tradition to keep up in that Lily’s birthdays have always been large events where all family could come, celebrate, and enjoy each other. Obviously this was not going to happen at our home this year as it had the previous two so we decided to reserve a pavilion at our local park (we are very blessed to have beautiful safe facilities in our area for these types of events).

As we began planning our guest list began to grow and eventually stalled at approximately 30 people. It is beginning to get dark a little earlier so we chose to provide dinner in order to begin the celebration more quickly. I’m not sure if it was pride or some primal aversion but we could not bring ourselves to press the buttons to dial the number to Little Caesar’s Pizza. We decided we just had to cook for this group. Its what we have always done, it’s something we love to do together, and it not something we are willing to give up.

Living tiny is not supposed to keep you from doing what you love, it is supposed to give you more time to do those things! So we went for it. We (actually Jeff) made two dutch ovens full of awesome chili! YUM! We may have had to cook them in the oven all day instead of on the stove, but we did it! We may have had to put one dutch oven on top of a muffin tin to make them both fit in there, but we did it! We may have had to limit our weekly grocery list so we could have room for sour cream and cheese in our refrigerator, but we did it! It may have looked like our kitchen exploded when we were done, but we did it!

I may have had to store cups, plates, plastic ware, and napkins in my car for a week and a half, but we did it! Not only was the chili a great success, but we also managed a beautiful (if I do say so myself) home made fondant covered birthday cake! (which I was only able to make because I have time and flexibility that I would not otherwise have if I were living in a standard home and working full time)

I’m not going to say there weren’t frustrating moments that morning but we were able to simultaneously decorate the cake and make the chili, in our tiny kitchen, with limited supplies. I’m not trying to toot our horns here, but I want to illustrate what is possible in a space like we have. I would have never imagined it until we tried that we could accomplish what we did with relatively little struggle. I was overjoyed to know that the holidays might still be filled with items of deliciousness from our oven and our days of entertaining, while slightly different now, are not over!

We were also able to accept lots of gifts and Lily learned valuable lessons in letting things go, making decisions, and giving to others when we had to clear out space for her new things by getting rid of and giving away older toys. The process went much better than I had anticipated and I hope that the tradition will continue to be valuable to her as she grows.

The next morning we were able to take several hours and just play with everything she had received. As a mom it is so valuable to me to be able to do that; to teach her how the games are played, to help her learn how to build the towers of blocks taller and stronger, to read her books to her, to remind her of who gave her what and how much they love her, and even to have the millionth tea party with her new Daniel Tiger because he had “never had tea before mommy!”

The birthday took over the house for the day and had to be put away eventually but I believe this birthday was exactly what we had hoped moving into a tiny house would be all about. It was the exact experience I needed to solidify my decision in times of doubt. It was a big party in so many ways. Happy birthday baby girl!