Tuesday, May 13, 2008

My sweet little ones turned five, it's a miracle I'm still alive

*****Updated with pictures

I have this thing about parties. I love them. Particularly planning them. I get all geekily in to a theme and have to make sure every thing matches just so. I don't know what's wrong with me but it's getting worse. Now I'm obsessing.

B & J turned 5 on Sunday and the last several weeks have been filled with party planning.

Yes, you read that right - several weeks. For a 5 year old birthday party.

B & J had picked Spiderman and Hannah Montana as their "themes" respectively. I'd created the perfect invitation complete with Hannah and Spidey "saying" a cutesy little rhyme that emphasized the fact that we were going to a party place with inflatable bouncers - yeah I know gag.

The location had been picked months ago(we stopped doing parties at our house after their 2nd birthday) but it was the little details that needed to be attended to.

Things like... what to put in the goodie bags(while many moms despise goodie bags, I think a nice well thought out, "non-cheap plastic crap" laden goodie bag is a wonderful way to say thanks for coming), decor, the perfect cake ( see, I told you I get all geekily into this).

Once the invitations had been created and my mother and I fought to the death compromised on who to invite (she wanted to invite the whole preschool class - I wanted to invite a few select friends the twins had requested)
I sent them and waited. Some rsvp'd right away. Others waited. A few days before the party I emailed asking for final rsvp's and got what I thought was the rest.

Until party day.

When families brought siblings they didn't rsvp for. Tweenage siblings that eat a lot.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a total hardass but if you're going to bring your bottomless-stomached child please give me a little heads up. That way I can ensure there is enough food.

Running out of pizza does not sit well for a neurotic party planner like me.

But we had cake galore as I'd found a local lady that makes "Ace of Cake" style cakes . Spiderman in front of webbed buildings for B and a pink sparkly guitar for J. The cakes were a hit and might have launched me in to the party planning hall of fame- where I rightfully belong.







Craziness ensued when a bunch of sugar infused children dove into the present stash and started handing things to B & J to open. Thus in many cases I don't know who gave them what out of the bajillion toys they received. ( I was planning on having the twins open gifts at home for not only a more controlled environment but frankly that's a lot to make other five year olds sit through.) But I recovered quickly realizing this years thank you cards would need to say something along the lines of a generic thank you for the gift,we appreciated you sharing our birthday. Not ideal...but sufficient.

It's insane, my house looks like a toy store. A very disorganized toy store. I'd love to donate some if only I could I pry them from my kids hands. Next year I'll wise up and put some away before letting them have at the stash.

The night got crazier at home as they dove into all their toys and I about went apeshit trying to open the fort knox-esque packaged toys. Every single one of them.

But there were tons of giggles and squeals of excitement.
At the end of the evening when they finally went to bed I stood back and stared at these two amazing little 5 year olds that enrich my life each day that I know them. It had been an incredible 5th birthday not just for them but for me. Chaotic and crazy, but fun.

I kissed their soft little sleeping cheeks

and then headed out to the nearest bar.

15 comments:

Not Afraid To Use It said...

Awww! That is so sweet! AMAZING how FAST it goes. I used to hate it when people would say that to me, but it is SO true.

You need to check out this t-shirt. Your post title totally reminded me of it: http://www.cafepress.com/miraclefive

Gen said...

You're such a good mom! I'm a slacker when it comes to birthday parties. I hope my kids don't feel deprived, but the big kid birthday bang stresses me out too much. I try to make the day special, in a low-key sorta way. I feel guilty. I shake it off quickly, though, when I remember years past where I've done the big birthday thing. :::shudders:::

Ann(ie) said...

This post gives me a glimpse into my future. And it kinda excites me. ;) I'm a bit the same way. Not as bad as my stepsister who had a pony and an entire petting zoo spread for her daughters 1st birthday, but she's crazy. Ben's first birthday was boring and blah with family and a couple of friends, but I didn't want to overwhelm the poor dude. I just wanted to see him dive into a cake. BUT...next year I'm going all out. And I'm going to look up that cake person you found!!! yay. And hubby turns 40 that same week so I will be on a diet of xanax and martini's. ;)

Glad it was a success!

Amanda said...

I bow to your superior birthdayosity.

And I would love to see cake pictures :-)

Stacey said...

Love the shirt. In fact I may get one for my son...sometimes it is a miracle with all the crazy things that have happened to that boy ;)

Groovy- if by "good mom" you mean crazed, neurotic and obsessive then yes I am a very good mom.

Maureen said...

Ah yes... the party-planning years. They are behind me now. When she was young, I would go all out for daughter's parties each year too; much to the dismay of other parents whose kids raved about the Harry Potter party, or the Amazing Race party, or the Survivor party... now that daughter is turning 17 next week, she's the one planning her OWN parties... YAY!

tricki_nicki said...

Duuude, people brought their older kids to your party? What the heck were they thinking? Weird.

I know there are probably down sides, but how cool is it that you only have to plan ONE awesome party for the two kids!? So nice.

Minnesota Girl said...

Wow! Party sounds awesome! Lucky little darlings!

P.S.
Happy belated Mother's day to you too!

Claire said...

Happy birthday to your little ones! I love five, such an awesome age (but they've all been so far)

Bee said...

wow, those cakes are amazing! You did good.

I thought I'd come over here more often especially if we are going to meet up one of these days...and I have a five year old, too. See? Already best friends. :)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful cakes! Sounds like a wonderful party even with the bottomless-stomached uninvited tweenagers. LOL! Why do they make those toys so difficult to open? Is there a purpose to that or is it just to annoy us and destroy the earth in the process?

Naarski (the Mrs.) said...

I luv these cakes!! And no, I can't believe your kids are 5 yrs old!! Holy hannah! I remember when they were in your tummy :)

Butrfly Garden said...

Oh, gad. RSVP'ing is NOT that hard! WHY do people have such a hard freaking time with it?? For Nicholas' birthday, I got ZERO rsvp's. Not even one from his cousins. So we cancelled the party and took to the one neighbor kid to Space Aliens. Then when we got home, there were messages about, "This is so and so's grandma. My daughter has been waiting at the bowling alley for a while now and says she doesn't see any party. Please call her." No, no, lady. We're past adding "please" to "Call."

Anywho, it sounds like the twins had an awesome party! Those cakes were really cool!

Anonymous said...

I seriously hope you took a spa day after that - a couple hours at the bar will only partially distille the symptoms! It's going to take a mud soak, salt rub and a hot rock massage to thoroughly erradicate the 'birthday party crazies'! Even then, you may still get dizzy thinking about it and will have to go promptly back to the bar! As the mother of a 10 yr old boy - I know! EXCELLENT blog! Cheers, Cher

MommasWorld said...

I so get the party planning happy. I go nuts when it comes to parties. I like it when everything comes together and I dote on the small stuff too. Like I really REALLY wanted teaposy for Snow White’s birthday this month. Still I think it would be better for my wallet if there was something other than BOWLING way out here in the country to hold a party.

LOVE the cakes!! My children have way too much Stuff! It trickles out of their rooms and starts occupying other rooms in the house. A month a go Snow White opened a few toys she received for CHRISTMAS! There are still a few items she hasn’t used yet from her birthday LAST YEAR! With that said, next year we will do donation gifts for SPCA, Pediatric wards at the local and Shrine hospitals, etc. You just need to give a list with inexpensive items with your invitation. The SPCA can give you a list (I remember bleach, trash bags, bathroom rugs, used baby blankets), Pediatric wards ask for crayons, coloring books, word find, books, paint by number, AA batteries for the many hand held toys long term patients bring and such. Don’t feel sorry for Snow White. She will still get two presents from Mommy. The person who understands how much room there is in her room. he.he.he.

I only gave out enough invitations for the number of girls we were inviting. The last person to RSVP did so two days before the party. It never occurred to me that someone would show up with extra guests to an RSVP party. I would have been really upset if there was an extra person at the party. I had a specific number of Asian dishes and hand made Kimonos. If it came down to it I would have given up my own Kimono but thank goodness I didn’t have to.

Happy Belated Birthday to your little angels!