A few readers have shot me notes, wondering if I forgot to go wacky-insane during the girls’ birthdays.  Was I medicated?  I wish. I told the girls a year in advance that there would be no whangdoodle party this year.  Like this one.  Or this one.  Or even this one.  But they didn’t believe me.  In fact, no one believed me.  Everyone was sure I’d cave, flip one side of the house to the other, hand sew Alice in Wonderland favors, and attempt a “Through the Looking Glass” party.  The girls started creating tremendously difficult themes in their heads, and I was tempted…but in the most boring and adult-like of ways, I stuck to my guns.  Who wants to be a grown up when it comes to birthday planning?  Ugh.  Not me.

We came up with a delightful “no hot glue or crafting required” plan, and had a year of “Sister Slumber Parties”. Kelly invited one set of sisters to her slumber party, and Sara invited another to her party, and that was our entire list. We kept it all very small, very sweet, and it was as tremendously wonderful as any of my theme-a-paloozas. I still carried our invites over to A Piece of Cake, and as always, they perfectly matched the cake to the invites.  Kelly wanted a “Slumber Party” theme to her slumber party, which matches her literal world view, well, quite literally.

I surrounded her cake with confetti shaped in the words “Kelly”.  Before you think it’s over the top, imagine having the name “Kelly” in 2013.  If you find it as a candle, stationery, on a pencil…you buy it.  Her name has become quite uncommon, much to her dismay.  Unfortunately, Sara has the same fate.  The world pushes that “h” on Sara likes it’s the law.  But I digress.

I added polka-dot balloons, because I’m impartial to polka-dot balloons. Kelly’s impartial to 9-foot inflatable water slides, so we added that too.

Kelly also requested a “formal dining room fried chicken dinner”.  What can I say?  My daughter has taste. We used light up flower rings as napkin holders, because everyone wishes napkin rings were just big ‘ole pieces of jewelry anyway.  It’s time someone made that a reality.

The Godparents secretly shipped a gift Kelly has long wished for: her American Girl Look-Alike doll.  Almost creepy how much it looks like her, isn’t it? Matched our literal theme beautifully. There are now TWO Kellys under the age of 7 in America. Watch out! I’m starting a hot new trend.  Look for the New York Times Headline: “Names of the 70’s Experiencing a Comeback.  5 girls Named Janet This Year Alone!”  I curled up with the “little girls”, and the “big girls” slept in a tent inside my sewing room (big stuff…big, I tell you).  I think they finally stopped swapping deep secrets around 1:30 am.  The little girls and I were sacked out by midnight.  Kelly’s first “real slumber party” was just about the sweetest party I’ve ever hosted.

Sara designed her theme and invite, and I’m sure we’re all surprised by the bright colors and the mermaid.  What? You’re not surprised?  Goomommy and Goodaddy called over the weekend to ask if Sara is “still into mermaids”.  If by “still into” you mean that every night she goes to sleep praying she’ll wake up as a mermaid, has pictures of them all over her walls, reads mermaids books and watches mermaids shows whenever possible, then yes.  She’s still into mermaids.  Little bit.

I gave Piece of Cake full license to break my “no blue icing” rule.  Without water, you have no mermaid theme.  Everyone knows this.  Sara was thrilled because my cousin, Jayme, loaned us “real mermaid decorations, not the baby kind.  Cousin Jayme only has the cool stuff, Mommy.  She’s Auntie Amanda cool.”  Agreed…been thinking that same thought since my own 8th birthday.

It only took a few minutes to alter the birthday sign to read “Sara is 8!”. If you think it was easy to throw netting and shells on a table and call it a day, you’ve clearly never lived with 3 cats.  This was an acrobatic feat which created the most challenging game of “keep away” I’ve ever played.  I won.  Just ask the cats. Oh wait, you can’t.  I had to lock them in the bathroom to make this possible.

Most of the party involved nail painting, Karaoke, and a dance party in the basement, so I hung the mermaids and blue tinsel drapes downstairs.  Turning 8 is a louder affair than turning 6, this much I’ve learned.  THANK GOD Auntie Amanda flew in to MC the party.  OH THANK GOD.  These girls wore out Auntie Amanda, which means had I MC’d the party…well…let’s be honest with ourselves…I’d be dead.

I think I finally got the chatter-boxes to sleep around 2 am. I warned Sara she’d make herself sick, and as if God wanted to lob me a Mommy-high-five, the next day Sara said, “Mommy, remember when you said I’d make myself sick? I felt great at 2 am, but now I feel so, so sick.  You were right.” She took a 3 hour nap and ate nothing but rice the next day, and was back in bed by 7 pm. Slumber party survival skills are learned over time, not overnight. And never at 2 am with a belly full of popcorn and Oreos.

Sara wanted 2 special things for her birthday: Saige and a hot pink North Face jacket, making her gifts the perfect illustration of what it is to be caught between little kid and slightly bigger kid.  I’m so glad she’s not a bigger kid just yet.  I would have been happy to keep her at 7 for another year. That’s as likely to happen as American Girl deciding to make a 41 year old look alike doll.  Her hair turns grey every 3 months, and she comes with her own tweezers and gym membership.

And so there you have it, me being true to my word.  No hot glue guns.  No late-night cursing at Pinterest sessions.  No worries about weather or favor counts.  Just us, some dear, lovely friends, and late-night giggles.  I’ve got to say, this “calling it in” thing is kind of addictive. Although, that being said, I sure did love those old-style parties.  Maybe…maybe…just one more…