Party of the Year

The event of the year was held on Saturday. I spent several months booking the location (a water park), ordering custom invitations, ordering personalized wooden forks (no plastic for the landfill, yo), filling goodie bags, coordinating pizza/drink orders with the facility, tracking RSVPs, buying decorations, napkins, and paper plates, ordering a cake (and picking it up), and buying birthday gifts for our daughter.  My husband's contribution? Showing up on the day of the party and blowing up a few balloons.  Thanks, Sweetie!

The kid invited 14 friends (plus my dad, who is visiting us from Maryland) and all but one came to the party.  A few parents stayed, but most left. We had a party room right next to the water park (located inside a hotel).  The room was really nice and the staff was helpful. As soon as all the kids arrived, they quickly exchanged their clothing for swimsuits and hit the water park. They swam for about an hour and a half until it was time to serve pizza. We had a few adults in the water park watching the kids. The following incidents were reported:
  • One skinned knee (one of A's cousins)
  • One girl came up to me and announced that, "I bit my tooth!"  I didn't know what that meant. She put her mouth very close to my face so that I could investigate. I was not sure of the protocol for this. I didn't see any blood so I decided she must just need consolation. I assured her that her tooth was fine and sent her on her way.
  • Two girls got in a tiff. I tried to get to the bottom of it. One claimed that the other one was talking about her behind her back. These girls are in second grade . . . what would one say behind the other's back?  "She sleeps around?!"  My husband and I did our best to get to the bottom of the situation and to defuse it.
  • One crying incident during the gift opening. Cause undetermined.
  • When it came time to open gifts, I learned that at least two kids brought glitter glue for my kid. I am pondering my rights as far as taking legal action against those parents.
At around 12:30, the wet kids headed to the party room and plowed through a few pizzas. There were only two boys at the party and one of them claimed to have eaten 10 pieces. I took his word for it.  Next, we had the gift opening. It was sheer chaos. I was trying to keep a list of what each kid brought (so that I could force my kid to write thank-you notes later) but all the kids were jammed up in the same corner, watching A open everything. My friend Candi was trying valiantly to keep the gifts and cards together. My daughter did get some nice gifts. There was one card that featured different planets. Stuff like, "Saturn wishes you a happy birthday." I have to confess I laughed when my daughter read the card aloud and I heard her say, "Your anus wants all of your wishes to come true!" Anyway, she did get lots of craft sets and clothes - exactly what she wanted. My dad gave her cash so she immediately requested a shopping trip for later that day.

After the raucous gift opening, we served cake. I am kicking myself for not getting a photo of it first. It featured a picture of a girl swimming in a pool. It was really cute. My husband inexplicably cut a ginormous slice for each kid. I mean, it goes without saying that kids need as much sugar as we can possibly pump into them.

Finally, the kids had about 30-45 minutes to do some more swimming before it was time for parents to start showing up. They made the most of it. When we cleaned up the party room, we noticed some cake in the sink of the adjoining bathroom. I'm pretty sure that's one of the signs of a kick-ass party - cake smeared in the bathroom sink.

We only give our daughter a birthday party every other year, so we're now off the hook until she turns 10. Hallelujah!











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