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If you are coming from Building Heavenly Bridges (BHB), WELCOME and if you are finding me for the first time and looking for support after a loss, then please check me out at my grief/loss blog!



This blog is a series of anecdotes from our life after losing our first child, a stillborn daughter, then going on to birth the two other lights of our lives!

Bear is 6: serious, organized, my cruise director and my time keeper.

The Comedian is 4: She is pure comedy always doing something unintentionaly funny that I attempt to put into words.

Enjoy our stories, conversations, and delights as we embrace the lives of our second and third daughters without ever negating our first.

Children's Widsom - Quote of the week...

Children's Widsom - Quote of the week...
"I Wish Emma Was Alive Because I Would Tell Her Where The Bathroom Is"

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Show and Tell - The Calmest Party of them All

My girls were due a day apart. Yup- that's right. When the doctor said, "Congratulations! You are due on February 7th!" I nearly fainted. I spent far too much time ruminating on what life would be like if my children - *@yikes*@ had the same birthday!

And then, I spent even more time worrying about Bear's 2nd birthday party. Would I be in the hospital? Would I miss the whole event? And the question that opened the door for the Comedian to play her first of countless jokes on me, Should we move the party up?
It was pure genius, right? Move the party up TWO weeks, just to be safe and all my bases will be covered. I can enjoy my two year old's party, and then, go labor and deliver a baby! Um...best laid plans and all? Can you see where this is going?

The sweet and sassy Comedian decided to make her appearance, um...TWO WEEKS EARLY and I had a three day old infant at a party for 12 (uh-yeah - you read that number right) toddlers. Thank God for my mother. The event would have been a chaotic, running, screaming, me-on-the-couch-nursing-and-completely-NOT-in-control, hullabuloo if not for her!
And so began the beginning of our totally awesome, but completely unnecessary over-the-top themed birthday parties. In my defense, slightly, is the fact that I combine them. I mean, they are so close and the idea of TWO parties in TWO weeks makes me feel like walking to the nut-house door and committing myself.
Here are the stats:

The 1 and 3 Party

Theme -Dora
Labor intensive factor - EXTREME

This exerpt from her scrapbook says it all! Look closely on the bottom right and you will see the HAND SHOVELED TRAILS my DH went out and did THAT MORNING - Dora Style! (meaning there are dead ends and trap trails, and Swiper even jumped out of one!)

Oh- and there was THE CAKE!
Kid Count: 18
After Math- INSANE

The 2 and 4 Party
Theme - Curious George

Labor Intensive Factor - Moderate (I think I was just sleep deprived and TIRED!)
Kid Count: 12
After Math- EXTREME

The 3 and 5 Party

Theme - My Little Pony
Labor Intensive Factor - EXTREME (I had to take a half-day from school to get all the preparations done in time!)

There was the banner I just, had to make:
The machine enlarged, and hand colored pony for ...pin the tail:

The Cake:
Oh - and yeah...nearly forgot about that REAL LIVE HORSE we fed as a the final ta-da!
Kid Count - 12
After Math - Lingered for WEEKS!

THIS YEAR I GOT SMART!

The 4 and 6 Party

Theme - NONE!
Labor Intensive Factor - VERY LOW!

Kid Count - 10 (including mine!)

Cake? Naw - that has gluten! How about a choice of vanilla or choc birthday pudding?
After Math - Well...just check these pics out!


I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out! Bear had her five friends and they focused with laser intensity on their project for nearly the WHOLE party! The Comedian had two friends who made playdough in the other room and were just so calm and "in their element". I commentated to everyone, multiple times, "Woah- is this the calmest party ever, or is it just me?"

So - a virtual note to myself. This worked. Do it again. (and feel free to re-direct me back to this post next year if I slip into a time warp and decided a THEMED, LABOR-INTENSIVE, EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF KIDS party is on our horizon!)

Now, be sure to see what everyone else is showing and telling! I'm off to teach Sunday School - but PROMISE to visit YOUR show and tell before day's end!

12 comments:

Liv said...

Wise, wise, woman. I'm going to remember that one.

Although if you were my mother, you would have rocked in my book for that My Little Pony cake.

Martha@A Sense of Humor is Essential said...

Great pictures, I love it and I too have learned and scaled back intensive party planning to throw down some chips and burgers, make a yummy cake, and rent a bounce house.
BTW, honey, you need to update your intro paragraph because Bear is 6 and Comedian 4!!!!

The Steadfast Warrior said...

Sometimes it takes awhile for us to figure things out. Lad you found a way to do birthdays with your sanity still intact!

By the way, love the enlarged Mt Little Pony pin-the-tail-on-the-pony poster!

Kristin said...

ROFL...you are just as crazy as I am sometimes. Great parties...especially the last one.

JuliaS said...

LOL - I am sure they were both great parties! They looked fabulously fun from the pictures.

I just want to say something about "best laid plans" though . . . LOL!

AnotherDreamer said...

Smart :) Loved hearing the birthday stories!

Beautiful Mess said...

The decorations and the cakes are amazing, NICE work! Good job figuring out that they don't "need' themes. Usually they just love to go with the flow. Thank you for sharing!

AwkwardMoments said...

Oh Wise One. I may steal that bit of your knowledge even though I only have 1

Lori Lavender Luz said...

Dratitall. I'm about 2 weeks late getting this advice. Invitations just went out to 12 of my son's friends for his gymnastics party.

Oh well. The aftermath is like that we'll ALL be tired.

Very cool parties, especially the last one. Kudos to you, Cara!

battynurse said...

This definitely looks like the way to go although the themed ones sure were creative.

Mick said...

Great pictures and interesting post!

Delenn said...

After your comment on my S&T this week, I had to go back and read yours. WOW!

And I thought I worked hard on the parties!!

I too have learned to scale back (although, my version of that is to have it elsewhere and not at my home).