less is more...work

This week has been insane...IN SANE. Its finally Sunday, and I am trying to recover, get things done and relax? (I'm not sure if that's how you pronounce the word) July is a busy month over all for us, two of our girls have birthdays - a day apart. Usually we do a joint party. This year they protested, and made it clear that they are two separate (aka expensive)children. I love birthdays, but more so I LOVE parties. I love throwing them, attending them,and if I had the balls would crash one. They make me happy. I am that mom that gets very excited when an invite comes home, and will do my best to attend (and possibly bring my child, if they haven't gotten on my nerves that day). I am also that mom that will spend entirely too much, time, money and energy on a 2 hour party that most will not remember. My oldest daughters first birthday included ponies and a bounce house, and the years that followed all had themes - including a "low key" carnival. My son's 2nd birthday was an embarrassingly expensive waste of money. I (like many parents) use my children's birthday as an excuse to throw my dream party. This time I decided I would do things on a smaller scale...no rentals, crazy decor, expensive cakes, or piles of food. First up was my younger daughter. She decided that she wanted to invite a few friends to trillion dollar bear...I mean build-a-bear at the mall. This cute (evil) store where you can stuff your own bear, bunny, cat or other random animal and then dress it in nicer clothes than I own. I was literally jealous of a stuffed bunnies shoes... I allowed her to invite 5 friends, she lost 1 invitation and out of the four girls only 2 RSVPED. I can handle 3 girls...I handle 4 on a daily basis. This was actually starting to sound fun for me (I know its all about me, I cant help it - I LOVE BIRTHDAYS) I was also excited about the fact that because I was allowing children that were not mine in my vehicle, I had an obligation (to their health) to clean my car. I work much better under pressure. I also had to "clean" the down stairs of my house, which consisted of cramming as much as I could into any cabinets, drawers and closets that didnt already have crap crammed in them. I even baked the cake myself to save on costs, I was determined to take it easy for this party. The cake fell apart when I flipped it over, BUT with A LOT of frosting I was able to save it. The morning of the party I showed my daughter her cake..."where's the toy?" she asked. Apparently the Pillsbury box I got didn't come with a toy. I felt guilty. I told her I would go to the store and get something to put on top. She requested a monster high theme. I got in the car to go to the store, turned on the a/c and HOT air starts blowing. HOT AIR. I was not happy. I get to the store and of course they dont have anything even close to this monster high theme that I almost thought was made up. I had to call my 6 year old to get approval for a different theme...this took several minutes and a lot of negotiating. I get home a little while before her friends should be arriving. One friend came and then a little while later the other girls mom called and said she was at the mall...so we headed out...with the windows down. Before we got to build a bear I had a budget in my head. I will let each girl pick an inexpensive bear, and one outfit. Then we will go to lunch, and head home for cake. That didnt happen. I let the girls pick whatever they wanted, (including underwear for the stuffed animals...because stuffed animal need underwear...and shoes of course), lunch was more than I anticipated, we had to go on the merry-go-round, and how could I say no to a little candy on the way out?? The trip to the mall was pretty expensive. The ride home was HOT. We got to the house and the girls ate (very little) cake, and played for hours. I had told the girls moms that I would bring them home around 6, when James got home from work. 6 rolled around and he wasnt home, he was running late. Thankfully the girls were being super well behaved and didn't want to leave, their parents didn't seem to mind either. I couldn't leave until James got home, I wouldn't have been able to fit my children plus 2 extra in my van...yes a van is too small sometimes. He finally got home (after a long week) and I loaded my daughter and her friends in the car. We turned down the first girls street and the gauges in my car started going nuts. Long story short...my car died. I still had one girl to drop off. The day pretty much went down hill from there. This was a typical end to a crazy week. I kept thinking that this "simple party" was a huge pain in the you know what and no less expensive than the parties that I usually throw. But there was a difference, my daughter LOVED it. She loved the special time she got without all of her siblings around, she loved her overpriced stuffed animal, she loved the 2 friends that were able to make it, and I think she even loved the excitement of driving with the wind blowing her hair all over the place and later breaking down. It was HER perfect day. So maybe less is sometimes more, but I would do it all over again...well if I was going back in time I would have gotten the car fixed...but everything else I would do again. In a few weeks we are celebrating my other daughters July birthday...she is having a slumber party... I am sure that will be a (beautiful) disaster :)