My Ears are Ringing

Ay yai yai... my ears are ringing with the sound of screaming girls. We had a birthday party for Jolie this evening and it was pretty loud and dramatic. I'm starting to understand what my friends have been telling me for years. The drama has commenced and is in full bloom.

We had 14 girls at our party. I had planned on more like 7 or 8 but during the course of making invitations, Jolie informed me that she'd already verbally invited five girls from her class. So, not wanting to exclude anyone (including my own children)... there were 17 kids in my house tonight!

It went amazingly well. My friend Donna offered to help, plus my mom and aunt Lisa. We divided the kids into three groups and we did manicures/pedicures, made shrinky dink necklaces, and played "Don't Eat Pete".

Yesterday and today while I was stressing out over getting everything ready for the party, I repeatedly asked myself why I always make things as difficult as possible on myself??? Handmade invitations, 13 guests, grilling lemon chicken and cutting up fruit and vegetables, making an ice cream cake... somehow I find it impossible to take the easy road. All afternoon I went back and forth about whether I should farm the boys out to my dad or Dan and have them take them somewhere. I knew it would be easier that way. On the other hand, it was our celebration of Jolie's birthday so I wanted to include them. Ofcourse I took the high road.

Once I decided to invite the boys I decided to put Tristan in charge of our game, to make him my "helper". He did well with the first group of girls but when we rotated the girls I found him in the family room having his toenails painted bright red. So much for being a helper. I guess he felt more comfortable pretending he was a 7 year old girl. Gavin did three rotations in the living room playing the candy game over and over again. At least everyone had fun.