WE SURVIVED!
I feel like I can breathe again....it was a close call.
Brielle got to have her FIRST "friend" birthday party this year, and boy did we go big (accidentally).
We had been told by pioneers in the birthday party world that about half of the people you invite will come to a party. So I saw no problem in Brielle inviting 15 kids, assuming that 7-8 would come.
Boy were we surprised when 13 kids RSVP'd to come (well, their mom's RSVP'd), meaning that with Brielle and Claire, we had 15 kids here...in our tiny house.
After rearranging our entire family/dining room area, moving furniture into corners of bedrooms, and borrowing a table and chairs, we were able to figure out how to get a seat for them all.
And guess what? I pretty much have NO pictures of the party, it was too chaotic for me to even think about it. I did take pictures of the basic setup the night before (thank goodness) and some when she was opening presents. But I have no pictures of the cake, the games, the jumping on the tramp, the pinata or anything else.
BUT...here are some of the pictures I DID take.
The "supply table"
(minus the supplies I waited until the morning to put out)
And yes, I totally made that balloon flower and only popped 1 balloon in the process.
When the kids arrived, there was an apron with their name on it plus fabric markers to decorate their apron. After they finished that, they were all given a little pizza crust and toppings and made their own pizzas
(just use your imagination, because there are no pictures of the pizza).
After everyone ate
(which we had to do in shifts since only 6 pizzas fit in my oven at a time), we played a team relay game
(again...no pictures) and then decided to move all the chairs outside to take advantage of the sun that had come out for the present opening.
I took two different pictures to try and get the whole group, but still couldn't...too many people.
The child whose present Brielle was opening got to come and sit next to her...I didn't get permission from any parents to post pictures of their kids, so just imagine the above scene times 15.
And FINALLY...I did manage to take pictures of the aftermath from the team relay game. We used shredded paper to look like shredded cheese
(in going with the pizza theme). They put on an apron, scooped up some "cheese" and ran it to their teams bucket at the other end of the patio, ran back and handed over the scoop and apron to the next....and so on...you get the deal. The winning team got to have first dibs on the pinata
(you know the drill...no pictures of that, but we did the "pulling string" method rather than using a bat to hit a pinata, much less exciting...much less dangerous.)
You can imagine how many of those little shredded pieces of paper made their way into my house stuck on shoes etc. It's been TONS of fun cleaning up from it all.
But you know what? It was TOTALLY worth the chaos, the noise and the mess to see this sweet girl have the BEST day ever!
Thank goodness we already decided they won't get a friend party every year though.
