Celebrations

I'm kind of out of the hole I was in. Finished with the birthday celebrations.

My sister and new BIL flew in on Friday morning. Good in theory. But I forgot that I had scheduled my annual appointment. The one I'd scheduled about 2 months ago. So I ended up telling my sister to pick up a shuttle to get to my house. A shuttle she ended up not needing. Why? Because the flight was 2 hours late. And the flight is only an hour long.

I picked them up from the airport and we had some lunch. Then we headed to the Princess school to bring treats.

Princess' teacher (Ms D): Oh hi! Did you want to go to the back to get set up?

Me [confused look on my face]: Set up?

She turned and looked at me. I held up the bag of treats. She looked relieved.

Ms D: Some people bring balloons and tablecloths and ice cream....

Me: Oh...I'm keeping it simple this year.

Ms D: I'm glad.

Me: I just don't want to create a mess. I brought cupcakes last year. BIG mistake. Frosting on faces. Hands. Clothes. NEVER again.

And what did I bring? Cookies. That's it. Two packages of chocolate chip and a package of sugar cookies. Those fresh ones from the bakery. Yum.

But as relaxed as Friday was, I was a little bit stressed on Saturday morning. Especially when I drove into the park parking lot. It was PACKED! I think I got the last available spot. Then when I walked some of the supplies up to the ramada, I noticed two sets of games going on. A soccer and a baseball game. No wonder it was packed.

The castle rental guy came up and started to assemble the party entertainment. An obstacle course. Uh-huh! It wasn't just a castle this year. It was one of those things you climb on one end. Weave through a couple things. Climb a cargo net. And slide down. I rented it through the internet. What I didn't realize was how TALL the thing actually was. When the gentleman started to inflate it we were all kind of standing there in awe. The kids from the two games? They had to walk by the obstacle course as they finished their games. That's right. You heard that right. The games finished just 10 minutes or so before the party was to begin. YEAH! Once the games finished, the park was CLEAR. We had it all to ourselves.

As much as we were in awe of the obstacle course when it was being blown up, all the kids were giddy when they saw it. They played on that thing like maniacs. What was good is that because it was an obstacle course, we didn't have any collisions. With the kids being bigger this year, that's what I was afraid of happening. Too many kids inside a castle and having kids getting hurt. We couldn't get the kids to stop playing when the pizzas came. So us parents ate. Pizzas. Sandwiches. Chips. Strawberries. Grapes. Oh yeah...and a couple unexpected people ate too.

Unexpected you ask? Yes. The two older sisters of one of my daughter's girlfriends from school. And the grandparents of one of the boys from school. Now the boy's Mom had called me earlier in the week to RSVP. At that time, she asked if it was okay if she brought her younger daughter. Knowing this lady is a single parent, of course, I said yes. But she failed to mention anything about bringing her parents to the shindig. The little girl's Mom called and just said her daughter would be attending. What I found a little irritating was when the one sister (who is 7) said "Why don't I have a gift bag?" Talk about bad manners. [shaking it off]

What was a great find was the cake. I should actually say....the cupcake cake. The big chain grocery store near our house has revised their baked goods selection. They now make cupcakes, put them together, and frost it like a cake. So this worked WONDERFUL at the park. I didn't have to bring a knife. All I did was pull each cupcake from the bottom (which had the cupcake tin) from the cluster and hand it to each child/parent. No fuss. No muss. And it wasn't skimpy. The theme I chose had 33 cupcakes! Yum!

And yes. My SIL and MIL did irritate me. My MIL jus irritates me with her voice. I could hear it everywhere I went. My SIL wore jeans and slip on heels. To the park. So she went over to go on the obstacle course with the kids. And held her shoes with her as she went through it. Then when they were all going to drive back, my SIL went into the bathroom and changed. Into a tshirt, some shorts, and gym shoes. Now why wasn't she wearing that outfit in the first place? This way she could run around with the kids.

And run the kids did. After the cupcakes, I gave the kids their gift bags. I went on the cheap and used brown bags. To go along with the Wonder Woman theme, all the items were blue, white, or red. There were necklaces with star shapes all around. Bracelets with inspirational words (Hope, Pride, Freedom, etc). Little airplanes. Bookmarks. Bubbles. Headbands with little stars sticking up like bunny ears. And a pinwheel. The kids immediately threw on the headbands and began to run with their pinwheels. I had them run in groups across the baseball field. Many. Many. Times.

What I found interesting is that when the games finished a Parks worker came by and changed out all the trash liners in the ramada area. What was even better was that after the time we had reserved the space, the same Parks worker came by and changed the liners again. It was so nice. So the next party (if any) would have empty trash containers.

It was a great time. The Princess had a blast. The Bear had a blast. We had a blast. No extensive clean-up. I think I'm going to have to rent the park next year too....