Birthday Party Triumph!

The birthday party was a total success!! It was scheduled from 3-4:30, and it was at 4:18 that I looked around, after all the planned activities had taken place and wondered, "Now what?". That means there was only 12 minutes in the whole party that were not choreographed in some way, and since this was a girl party (oh boy, was it ever!), the little girls, mostly in adorable dresses, all went outside and played together. It was great!

Here are a couple pictures of my Hello Kitty creations. The cake was beautiful, if I do say so myself. I made it from a 9x13 cake, froze it the day before (as recommended by the online instructions I read), and then cut it to this shape. I frosted it with store-bought icing, used a tube of purple for the bow (Big Girl's choice color), used jelly beans for the eyes and nose, and black licorice for the whiskers. I had no trouble finding black licorice at our local grocery store, which surprised me. Unfortunately I now have the rest of the package that I'm not too crazy about, but I'll probably end up eating it anyway. Can't let good candy go to waste!

I also made the "Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty" poster. I free-handed it, which is obvious by the lopsided curve at the bottom, but it was no less fun for the girls being lopsided. I mentioned how I had to go back and make the yellow bows since I had forgotten one kid. That kid turned out to be sick and couldn't come to the party. If I hadn't gone back and made more bows, it would have turned out the other way, then I'd be the horrible mom who forgot a kid she invited to a birthday party. (I blocked out the names for privacy's sake, but the names were in the center of each bow.) They were pre-taped to my china cabinet, so when it was time to play, I called each kid up, she took her turn, then I called the next name. It worked so very well. The china cabinet is on the wall in our living room opposite the large sectional sofa, so there was plenty of room for everyone to sit and watch the game. It was easy to see who won, since the names were on the bows. The girl who won was Big Girl's best friend at school, I think. It was the girl she talks about the most. And the prize for the game was a hair bow.

There was an unexpected blessing at this party. My mom was there, of course. That wasn't unexpected. What I didn't think about was that it also meant that for most of the girls there, their music teacher was at the party. As we were waiting for girls to arrive, we all ended up outside on the front lawn. My mom, the music teacher, began playing a game with the few who were already there that she had taught them in class this week. For the 15 minutes or so that it took for everyone to get there, we had a little music game going, and all the girls were under control, engaged in an activity they enjoyed. My Little Girl wasn't very good at it, but she didn't already know what to do, and she's only 3. I'll cut her some slack. It was absolutely wonderful. I love my mom! I love my kid's music teacher!!

I have 2 songs in my head this morning. (I'm suffering from insomnia, probably the party let-down, maybe now that the stress is over, my body doesn't remember how to be normal...) Both songs are Weird Al. My husband has been on a Weird Al kick of late and just bought Straight Outta Lynwood this week. The first single, "White and Nerdy," from that album went all the way to #10 on the Billboard charts. Yes it's in my head. If you haven't seen it, you've to watch the video at least once. It's hilarious. And yes, that's really Donnie Osmond. The other song in my head is "Polka Power" from Running With Scissors. It's a polka medley of some pop songs from the late '90's, including "MMMBop."