Phew! It Was Rough, but We're Still Alive!!!...

We haven't done it for five years. Oh sure, we've thought about it, but it's just never happened. Usually we had finals or other concerns on our mind, and so we could always make excuses. But this year, we couldn't think of anything to prevent it from happening, so we finally bit the bullet.

That's right. We threw our son a birthday party, with friends and games and everything. I know what you're thinking right now: "WHAT?!? Invite a group of kids between the ages of 8 and 10 over to your house and then give them cake?!? What are you, nuts?!?!?" Yes. Yes we are.

I couldn't really think of any real excuses this year, though. And what really clinched it is that this was one of the big birthdays. CT turned 10 this year! Double digits! The big 1 - 0!!! It had to be something extra special. Usually, we just have a nice, private celebration with family. We'll take him to the zoo, or a museum, or something fun like that. But no friends. The last time we had a friend party for him was when he turned 5 years old.

So this year, we figured it was time. We printed up some invitations, and invited his 6 closest friends to our house "for pizza and fun!" Sounds easy enough, right? We set a 2 hour window, and I figured we could just fill the time with some simple games, feed the kids, and send them home.

Preparations for today's event began last night, around 8:30 pm. I made cupcakes. While the cupcakes baked, I continued my work of creating a study guide for one of my upcoming finals. CT was having a late night at his friend's house, and he came home at around 9:30. When he walked in, I was able to ask him what type of frosting he wanted for the cupcakes. He chose vanilla icing - blue vanilla icing. I wasn't all that surprised, and so once the cupcakes had cooled, I began the process of making the frosting. Very simple, I've been doing it for years. Buttercream isn't difficult to make. But for some reason, I just couldn't get that blue dye to do what I wanted it to do! I added a LOT of drops of that stuff, and the frosting still came out more of a sky blue, when I was looking for something darker. Oh well. And then, by the time I had finally gotten the best color I could expect, the frosting was just a tad too runny. Oh well. It's not like the kids would really notice how thin the icing was. Especially when I covered it all up with super cool sprinkles!!! And my highly competent cupcake tester (Ty) gave some excellent feedback. "These are delicious." He said. I called it a win, put the cupcakes into my cake caddy to wait for the next day. (Yes, yes I do own a cake caddy. And it's awesome.)

This morning, we all woke up with a mission. Well, Ty and I each woke up with a mission, and recruited our chiddlers to assist. The chiddlers and I would clean the inside of the house, and Ty wanted to get the yard work done. Between CT, AJ, and me, we managed to get the house all tidied up. Then CT went outside to help his dad. I had some last-minute errands to run before the party, so I took AJ with me and left the boys to finish up the yard.

We went to the store, where I got some treats for the kids to take home with them, including extra treats/prizes for the two who would win the Lego building contest we were going to have at the party. I also got paper plates, napkins, and plastic cups (because I was NOT going to do that many dishes!!!). I also got some candles, and a few ingredients for the big cake I am going to make for the family party we'll be having tomorrow. Sadly, my trip to the store took longer than I expected, and I had purchased some ice cream, so instead of heading straight for my mom's house to borrow her big folding table and chairs, I had to run home and put some stuff away first. And I was now in a bit of a rush, with just over an hour until party time!

Mom and Dad weren't home, but when I asked her to borrow the table and chairs, Mom said my brother would be at the house. However, when I got there, I couldn't find that jack wagon! So I hauled that big table up from Mom's basement, and the five folding chairs that Mom has. In the process, I may or may not have dropped said metal folding chairs on Mom's kitchen tile, creating multiple earth-shattering crashes that put my nerves on edge.

While I was doing all of that hauling up those stairs, I was doing some quick calculations, knowing that five chairs would not be enough to accommodate all of the kids that would be coming to the party. I did some mental finagling and decided that two of them would have to sit on the couch. Anyway, I managed to get all of that furniture shoved into the back of our van, and then I headed home.

When I got there, it was about 30 minutes to party time and the boys were still hard at work in the yard. (The weather here in Utah has been absolutely insane, to say the least, but it's finally calmed down enough to allow for yard work - so today was the first time the lawn has been mowed since last fall. It was a big job.) Anyway, I called out to them that we had only a half hour until guests started arriving, so CT came inside to get showered and ready for the party while Ty stayed outside to finish the job. It was crunch time, and I've gotta say, when it's crunch time, I get pretty crabby and bossy. The chiddlers had several last-minute orders barked at them, and they complied quickly. They know by now not to mess with Mom when she's in Crunch Time Mode.

I had some last minute tidying up to do, and I was still emptying the dishwasher when the first kid arrived, 15 minutes early. I wasn't too upset by this, and he's a pretty helpful kid. I asked him and CT to go upstairs and gather up some Legos for the party. Then, right on time, the kids all started to come, one by one. While they were all still arriving, Ty came inside and went upstairs to get ready for the party (talk about just in time!)

Once I was sure that everyone was here, I began the Lego building competition. It was during this particular activity that I realized just what I had signed on for. I've met all of CT's friends. They're all nice kids. Normal, not super obnoxious, pretty polite, that kind of thing. But I've only ever dealt with them one at a time before today. When they were not trying to talk over each other. All of them, all at once, getting louder and louder and louder...WOW! I had to raise my voice more than once just to be heard over the babble! Anyway, we finally got through the contest, and the winners received their prizes, and then we moved on to the next activity: A game of "Apples to Apples, the Disney Version." This is a favorite at our house, so I figured we couldn't go wrong, right?

I played with the kids, so I could try and keep some sort of order going in the game, and HOLY CRAP the noise level was eardrum-shattering! Why do kids feel the need to talk all at the same time? And why do they feel the need to keep getting louder and louder in their attempts to be heard over each other?

I did all that I could to keep them under some semblance of control so we could get through the game, all the while asking myself why I thought having this party was a good idea and hoping I still had a good supply of Excedrin in the medicine cabinet...

Ty picked up and brought home the pizzas, and then meal time started. Usually, in most groups, eating time means that the talk dies down a bit, because their mouths are busy chewing. But while those kids went through their pizza and drinks with no hint of a problem, their noise levels only got louder!!! Ty had to use his big voice more than once just to keep things at a decibel level that wouldn't shatter our TV screen!

Anyway, once we got through dinner, we fed them cupcakes. While we were preparing the treats, Ty looked at me and said: "We're definitely going to stick with only doing this every 5 years." I looked back at him and said: "Really? I was thinking 20." He looked at me as though he'd never loved me more than he did at that moment, and then we started serving the cupcakes. We put a candle in CT's cupcake, everyone sang a cacophonous "Happy Birthday" and then he opened his gifts.

By the time it was all over, and everyone went home, I just had to sit in my rocking chair and close my eyes for a few minutes, giving my ears a chance to readjust to the new noise levels. And then I changed into my sweatpants, and popped two Excedrin, praying for lightning fast relief. (Ah, Excedrin! You never let me down!)

But, the good news is: CT and his friends had a great time, and we don't have to do this again until the boy turns 30! Yay!

Now we just have to make up for a grave error: We didn't throw a friend party for AJ's 5th birthday this last Fall, so guess what we're going to do THIS fall? Oy Vey. Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe by then AJ will have grown out of her desire to have birthday parties. It could happen, right?