Party Girl

I may have reminded my stubborn, opinionated little girl 500 times that she was not having a huge birthday party.  It worked out that the family parties got divided up and as far as a friend party, I really think that should be something big that you can remember.  All birthdays before the age of five or six for me are pretty sketchy in my memory banks.  Jac had a big five year party with six or eight friends just three months ago, so that is what she had stuck in her head.  Not to mention that there were maybe 15 adults present at his party.  It was a pretty big time, but I can't do that every year for every child!  More power to the mommies who do that every year, it's a lot of work!

I was getting a little nervous that Mia was going to be disappointed in her party.  She kept saying things like, "I won't have a lot of friends at my party, but all my cousins will be there."  I would then follow up with, "No, none of your cousins will be here on your birthday."  And she would glare at me and say, "I know!"  Then she would invite the neighbor boys to her "party", her nonexistent party.  And I would have to look at the mom and whisper, "There is  no party!"  And on and on, she also gave me lots of details about games and crafts and other fun things that would occur at her "party".  There were many times that I looked in her eyes and told her firmly that she would have a big friend party on her fifth birthday, just like Jac and that her fourth birthday was going to be two neighbor girls over for a craft and then opening presents with Mommy, Daddy and Jac.  I felt like I was deprogramming a prisoner of war, she would totally agree with me and say something like, "I was talking about my party next year."  But then the next day we would be back to the same conversation. 

So I caved, a tiny bit.  We bought more decorations than I intended.  I made cake and cupcakes so her friends would have a more "party" experience.  We also went to the Magic House a couple of weeks ago.  She is a mildly discontent little girl that sees the flaws in the world versus a sunnier outlook.  So again, I was nervous.

We talked about the cake.  She told me in detail, exactly what the cake would like and that I would be making it.  I like to make cake, all your love goes into it, but I am exhausted folks!  But of course when your baby girl asks you to make her "rainbow" cake you have to agree.  I fudged a little, my rainbow only had six colors; not seven.  As the days wore on she would tell me things like, "It will be half yellow and half blue, with a rainbow."  The last detail she added was Monday while we were baking the actualy cake, "Mommy if it is a rainbow cake it has to have clouds."  Seriously, birthday or not I think I snapped back at that one and told her she had to stop adding details. 

So here it is, the cake (with clouds, what can I say, I am a softy) was completely her concept.  The decorations and wrapping paper were solely picked out by Miss Mia.  We made pom pom animals that were a bit too difficult for four and five year old hands to create.  She decided on all the party favors.  I told her next year her party would be a complete surprise!  I didn't add that otherwise, she might not make it to her fifth birthday party....

And lest you think she is completely spoiled, she insisted that all of her friends get to blow out a candle on their cupcake also.  Her idea.

We visited the toy store a couple of times to try and get birthday ideas.  She was not shy in pointing to every toy and saying she wanted it.  I told her she needed to say, "I like this."  Before opening her gifts she told me that she couldn't wait to play with her Oso toy, I had to tell her she wasn't getting an Oso toy.  She also said that she was going to have two doll houses now, because she already had one and she had picked one out at the toy store.  What a lucky girl, nevermind that all of her gifts on the table could literally fit into a shoe box.  I let that one slide. 

We got her a camera from Fisher Price, one of those indestructible ones, she loved it.  We got her Twinkle Toes from Sketchers, she adores those.  She received some footy pjs, her favorite.  She wanted a two dollar vibrating microphone that we had somehow managed to avoid for four years.  She also got some paints, a Playdoh accessory and a basket for her bike.  She loved all of her gifts.  She was over the moon for her cake, although she didn't eat any of it.  She loved her name up on the wall, although thought it would have looked better in rainbow paper.  She really had a good time and felt special the whole day. 

Now I have a whole year to set expectations about her fifth birthday party, whew!