Wrap It Up!

We have 3 birthdays to celebrate in October: Ray, Emma, and Tessa. Being 37 weeks pregnant and wanting to wrap things up in order to have some peace of mind before October birthday #4 arrives, I decided to hurry and have Emma & Tessa's birthday parties last week.

Tessa's birthday is on the 9th. I love to plan themed birthday parties and in the past have tended to get carried away....However, this time things went a little differently. I tried to give theme suggestions. I offered Tessa a bowling party or a swimming party. She wasn't interested. She adamantly wanted a "peanut butter play-doh" party. I finally realized that I was not in any shape to produce a fancy party and so we went for the simple play-doh party. Tessa loves it because not only is it fun to play with but it is also edible.

I set out a ball of dough for each guest and provided every cookie cutter I have available for them to play with. All of the girls and my other children had a great time. We had to clean up before they were ready to quit to do some other things. And, it was such a huge success that the girls did not want to part with their dough, so we wrapped it up for them to take home.

We also tied a pink balloon to each girl's ankle and tried to play the game where they try to pop each others balloons. None of the balloons popped and the girls were thrilled. My older kids seemed disappointed because they thought we were having a disaster until I explained that we were all lucky to still have our balloons to take home too.

We played musical mats(chairs) with Hannah Montanna as our "vocalist." Watching the little girls dance around and sing along was the highlight of my afternoon.

After presents, we served the girls some party mix of popcorn, fruit flavored mini marshmellows, and chocolate chips. We dished up some fun "purple cow" drinks and sang "Happy Birthday."

To end our party, we let everyone frost & decorate sugar cookies to take home. Again, what a simple and yet purely captivating activity.

The whole party lasted an hour & a half. I was able to sit and enjoy. My daughter had smiles and laughs throughout and all the guests went home happy. Elizabeth had a choir concert that night after dinner. I had been too tired to make a cake. Instead, I had prepared strawberry jello--Tessa's favorite food that I rarely make--and put the candles in it. We sang to her before we ate dinner and rushed off to the concert. We were worried that the concert might cause Tessa to feel left out, but instead she came home singing.
Simplicity is under-rated.

Friday morning I woke up unable to move. I suppose I over-did it more than I thought. So I rested the entire day to store up some energy for Emma's "Late Night" Party. Emma really wanted to invite girls over for a non-sleep-over party. Everyone came in p.j.'s. We did nails, hair-do's, and make-up. I also had each girl design a picture on a piece of white paper. With the magic of special crayons I was able to iron -on each design onto an over-sized white t-shirt for the girls to take home a personalized nightie.

For the most part, Emma's party went ok, minus the need for her to argue and fight with her older sister every two minutes...and not wanting any suggestions from me on what to do next....I made a silent committment to myself that we really might not ever need to have another birthday party again....

And, after all the girls went home, I laid down hoping that I could just have this baby tonight and be done with bed rest, pain, toxemia.....As I am envisioning labor coming at any moment and wishing my body back to normal, Elizabeth comes in. She comes very close sits down and whispers, "Mom, my book report is due on Monday, my science project is due on Tuesday, and my music listening write-up is due on Wednesday. I forced a smile and replied, "Well, I guess I know what we'll be working on tomorrow." She lovingly said good-night and went off to bed. I quietly cried myself to sleep. As much as I would like to "wrap things up" so I can have a baby without feeling anxiety about undone projects, it just isn't going to happen.