I have survived the birthday party. My voice is hoarse and I have no motivation to do anything else for the rest of the day, but I have survived. My four kids and six guests attended this party. Howard was in the grip of a scripting jag and was hidden away in his office. Or maybe he was just hiding. Trying to keep 10 kids happy during The Opening of Presents is a huge challenge. Patches did not understand why all the presents were for Gleek. He cried mightily over this unfairness. One of the guests clearly would have preferred to keep the gift she brought. She was ready to cry. In desperation I hollered “Cake & Ice Cream!” then stashed all the opened gifts away under a blanket for the remaining half hour of party time. There was chaos, there was joy, fun was had, everyone went home happy. Mission accomplished.
The party was short (only 90 minutes) because I’m not insane. We decorated butterfly wings cut out of posterboard. Then the girls all wore their wings for some of the games. Naturally they got to take home the wings. Kiki also carefully drew pictures of My Little Ponies and gave one to each girl. Those also went home with the guests. The third take home item was a My Little Pony paper doll that I printed off the internet. Note the similarity here, I gave the guests only paper to take home and they were delighted. I am so sneaky. This party cost $1 for the shiny stickers we put on the butterfly wings, everything else I had on hand already. Add in $2 for the gifts that my other kids gave to Gleek, $1 for the cake mix, and $1.50 for frosting. The total cost of Gleek’s birthday comes to $5.50 and she is the happiest little girl I’ve ever seen. Having a big birthday party has been a big dream of hers for almost a year. Today her dreams came true, she got to be the center of a huge crowd of friends and loved it.
Her actual birthday will be next week. She’ll get to pick what we have for dinner, open her one remaining gift from her grandparents, and be five years old. There won’t be any more cake. Between my birthday cheesecakes and her birthday cake all of us have eaten way too many sweet things. The quiet celebration on her actual birthday will be much more to my taste, but today she got to have the birthday party that she wanted. All is good.
For my daughter’s 5 year old b-day (last October), she and I built a pinata and tied dyed t-shirts that her cousins brought over. We may have spent about $20 on everything but we also barbecued brats for the adults. And a good time was had by all. And then you go and read about parties like these.
When my brother and I were very very small, each of us got a token gift on the other one’s birthday. It’s one of the few good things I remember my Grandmother ever coming up with and I am glad that I can remember the one sensible sweet thing she did and pass it on.
SoccerGirl’s b-day was last Sunday. Four days before her 4th b-day she decided she wanted a party! And a Ballerina Cake! And Balloons and ALL her friends! (after saying for a month that she wanted a birthday party just like her brothers with a green dragon cake at the park. sorry, it’s winter!) I was able to call 3 parents on Wed. night to ask if their kids could come to a party on Saturday. Well, we are kind of short on friends her age around here, but the two we could find plus their siblings who were friends with my son (and fans of SoccerGirl) all were able to show up and go crazy. SoccerGirl was able to wear her ballerina outfit from Halloween and play with her friends. We fed them lots of sugar and sent them home. On her actual b-day last Sunday we had a nice family dinner and a special Big Girl Blanket (quilt)as a gift from my mom.
Fun to party, but, good to have a nice quiet family dinner too, huh.
Wow. Five dollars. I am SO impressed!