Party Girl

When I look back at the photos from Mam's birthday party, I'm a little mystified as to why the whole thing was so exhausting. There was nothing complicated about it. It was all very simple, down-home birthday party-ish. Not really a lot to coordinate. Probably, again, something to do with cake...and my ability to worry about just about anything.

The girls...and it was all girls this year...showed up at 11:30. Girls are significantly different from boys. There was a whole lot of screaming and giggling surrounding each arrival. Somehow, it only added to the party atmosphere. I set them straight to work making mini pizzas, just like the boys did at Smunch's party.There were lots of options for toppings, but most of the girls stuck with cheese and maybe added a little pepperoni or pineapple. I wasn't particularly surprised to find a lot of leftover mushrooms and bell peppers. For some reason, I feel compelled to supply these even though I don't need them.

While my mom and I baked little pizzas, Daddy led the girls in a game of Twister. I'd carefully manufactured the rules for a slightly different game called Octopus, where the girls worked in teams with eight appendages. I don't think Daddy managed to pass all that theme-related information along, but I suspect the girls didn't care. They still had fun.Twister was followed closely by lunch of mini pizzas...with a side of fishing for goldfish and whales.The latter is a cute little idea I got from the kids' preschool a couple of years ago. The kids dip the big pretzel stick in blue frosting and then use the frosting to pick up fish. I'd also found some cheddar whales at Target, so I added them to the mix for a little variety.After lunch it was time of a somewhat disorganized, but entertaining, game of Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Dolphin.Thanks to Daddy for finding a way to create a poster-size dolphin and creating all the tails for me. Note to self: Although it's cute, don't bother with the different colored tail. It just encourages the girls to argue over the purple and pink ones. No one won. It's better that way, I think.

Next on the agenda was a rousing game of piñata. I'm not a huge fan of piñatas and all the candy usually involved. I decided this particular fish had swallowed sunken treasure that needed to be freed...another idea that I don't think was ever communicated to the girls.So, the piñata was filled with chocolate coins, plastic coins, beaded necklaces and jewels. When it comes to girls, these things are even better than candy. We made them all put their loot in a big bowl to be distributed among the goodie bags. I know these girls and I know at least one of them is agressive enough to have far more than her share of the loot. There was some whining, but not much. The fish was surprisingly fragile. This wasn't one of those piñatas that the birthday girl's dad is forced to whack open. It barely made it past the first round of party guests.We let the girls run wild for a while after that. Running wild usually means they all end up in the tree house, which at least makes for some fun photo opportunities.And after the last game, but before cake is the perfect time to let them run around because nothing gets their attention faster than asking if anyone wants cake. EVERYONE wants cake, even if they don't necessarily want to eat it.This one was pretty darned yummy too, if I do say so myself.

In an unplanned turn, the girls really wanted to see Mam open her presents, so I let her do that before they all left. It was hard to see just what was going on, the throng of girls was so close to her that they were nearly clambering all over her. It made me claustrophobic, even though it didn't seem to faze Mam much.I was taking notes and didn't manage to take photos during present-opening, but we continued with family gifts, like this lovely little musical jewelry box from Gram, after the guests had left with little goody bags of graham cracker sand, chocolate shells, piñata goodies and a little battery powered fish that could be caught in a net.

It was such a fun little party. I hope the girls all had a good time. They're all in the same kindergarten class and get along so well that it's hard to imagine that they didn't. One of the guests, who wasn't so sure about being dropped off, even sent her mom home after about half an hour. I consider that a major success.

Naturally, our day wasn't over there. Mam still had some work to do, turning from birthday princess to fiesty basketball player in the Hoop Stars highest scoring game yet. One more week of basketball and then it's all about batting and fielding for a few months. I don't always love basketball, but I think I just might miss it.And last, but not least, Mam decided where we would all eat dinner and chose...Fresh Choice. Now there's a dinner of champions!