I ended the evening with Sara praying and feeling profoundly grateful for Laura in my life. Birthdays are blessings. They’re also a lot of work for the parents. It was an interesting day of balancing the needs of the older and younger.
Wayne took the girls downstairs for a pancake breakfast while I finished dressing. The girls started in pseudo clothes, clothes Wayne had put them in pre dresses to prevent chocolate stains on party wear. Laura, in her usual fashion, striped early in the day and requested her choice, a green dress-up dress and underwear. She added cute purple fairy wings to her ensemble and began her day as birthday girl. She didn’t really seem to get my singing “Happy Birthday” to her. We spent most of the morning getting the house in order.
Wayne paid me a nice compliment. He said the house is running smoothly. That made me beam. I put a lot of effort into doing that. We both do. This is not to say my house exceptionally clean. But I think it is balanced. Recently, it feels like I’ve hit a stride with chores.
I spent an hour sorting through all our party stuff. I set aside the plates and things for Sara’s party next week. I put Laura’s Elmo themed stuff in a separate pile. I added extra plates for pizza later. Then I started to put together goody bags. I had bought packs of slinkies (small), bubbles, stickers, suction balls, and necklaces. I was trying to make goody bags for kids spanning 16 mos to 6 yrs. Necklaces choke. Those are too small. I had to think what was age appropriate. While I was concentrating on this task, I had two girls getting whipped into a frenzy at the site of new toys. The concept that they were for someone else was hard. Sara had fun making her friends bags. Laura had fun making herself a bag. Despite all the chaos, this is one of my favorite moments of the day. Laura proceeded to carry her bag around with her all day. When she went to bed, she grabbed at her bag, not at the plush new cat she got as her sleeping companion for the night.
Wayne and Sara picked up yummy cupcakes from Cupcake Royale. Laura had a nice long nap. I got to sleep for 45 minutes to rejuvenate. The clock struck 2pm and Laura continued to sleep. So did all the other participants at our party. The table was set and looking kind of lonely. We had understood that most of the party members were finishing up naps, but it was eery to not have anyone there at half past 2.
There was a sunbreak and I decided to take a quick walk around the block so I could get out once that day. I met J&C with the twins pulling up in their minivan wondering why I was walking away from my house.
Ruth and Grace are now both walking. They had a blast enjoying a bunch of new toys. Each parent had to follow a kid. It makes conversations mobile. At one point, Grace got spooked by Wayne vacuuming up crumbs.
Garrett and Rachel joined us. Again, I’m amazed at how quickly their kids are growing. We talked about how long it was since I’d seen them. Sara and Jonah are passionate quarterly friends. They instantly light up and started running around the house. It’s always fun to see how our lives parallel.
The kid energy got even higher with Jack and Jane. The two older boys, Jack and Jonah, provided the energy and I think Sara was the mastermind. They tunneled under the table. They barracaded Sara’s room entrance with a pile of blankets and stuffed animals. They stripped the kids closet and transformed it into a fortress. I think every toy in the house got played with today. It made a mess, but lots of fun.
I think Laura finally got it when everyone in the room started singing and looked at her. She blew out her candles with force. She had a “dance party” cupcake. She ate the frosting and then turned the rest of the cupcake into a blizzard of crumbs. Jon blessedly found the broom without prompting and swept up after all the kids.
Pagliacci pizza came soon after that. It capped off a fun day of play. I got to have puffs of conversation here and there. It was a very fun day.