It’s party season around here. It’s worse than June. This Saturday we went to two birthday parties. We were invited to FOUR but one got rescheduled (because we are family and we have that kind of power… bwahahaha) and one we had to skip because three parties in one day is just too much craziness. I’d love to eat that much cake but skipping that much nap time is insane. It was insane as it was.

The first birthday party was totally worth blowing Baby Bug’s naptime in half. She slept for 30 minutes on the way there and I was sooo afraid to wake her for fear that she would be the NeedsMoreSleep monster. But she wasn’t. As soon as she saw the bounce house she turned into the funnest kid on earth.

I think her most favorite thing in the world, next to her green pah (pacifier) of course, is to jump. She loves to jump. Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed* has got to be her favorite book of the last three months. She can’t quite get her whole body off the ground yet but she tries. And tries and tries… She would jump on the bed all day if we let her.

Bounce houses are all the fun of jumping with out any of the falling off and bumping your head part. Which was great. She bounced in there for hours and the only time she cried was when Toby bounced her backwards and she landed smack on her back and scared herself. But she quickly got over that of course. Nothing a little chocolate cake couldn’t fix.

Tomorrow we are scheduled for more cake. SuperChic is having her fifth birthday party (they are having it on a Tuesday just for us!!! How sweet are my family members?!) and it will be a “Royal Princess Ball”. My sister-in-law has been slaving away on a pumpkin cake all day and let me tell you… it is going to be the bomb-ditty-bomb-bomb. I can’t wait! Princess dresses! Princess Cakes! Princesses dancing!

I made the invitations, of course, because that’s my job. I am Chief Invite Maker of the family. I like doing it. Since they were so much fun, I decided to share them with you. If anybody has a little girl who wants to have a princess party and you are sick and tired of all the Disney pink and blue, then you can download your very own orange and brown Fall Princess Party invitations here.

If you do use them, do me a teeny favor and send me pictures or your orange and brown themed Princess Party because there is nothing I like better than Princess Party pictures. I hope to take a couple hundred tomorrow myself.

So I went to the swankiest party in Orange County and what did I do? I took pictures for you. It was dark and nobody really minded. And it was better than checking my cell phone every other minute to see if my parents had called to report that Baby Bug was in the emergency room because she cried so hard missing me her eyeballs fell out. I did check my phone five times. That’s not too bad for a mom who is attached to her daughter at the hip.

Apparently Baby Bug woke up at midnight crying for me but my mom put her in bed with her and she went right back to sleep. She only cried for ten minutes, my mom said. Which almost made me fall over with a heart attack! Ten minutes! She cried for ten minutes! My poor baby! Then I remembered that ten minutes is really not that long in the scheme of things. Babies sometimes cry for hours so I put myself back together and was just thankful that my mom sings like I do and Baby Bug probably felt right at home.

The important thing is we really had fun. You’d never know it by the pictures I took of myself in the bathroom (because I am a Dork with a capital “D”) but we shut the party down. We talked and talked and talked to the most interesting people. People we haven’t seen in years. I drank champagne and TWO martinis with fancy flowers and lychee juice in them. I kinda wish I would have eaten the flowers so I could report to you what they tasted like. That would have been interesting. The lychee juice was yummy though, in a flowery sort of way.

We came home at some unreasonable morning hour (like 2 am), rescued Baby Bug from Grandma’s arms and crashed. Of course Baby Bug woke me up at five this morning so I’ve been a bit of a zombie all day. You wouldn’t even be reading this if I hadn’t have made an agreement with my trusty nine-year-old niece to wake me up after I put Baby Bug down.

Yes, I’m out in the sticks again for YET another party! What can I say? Tis the season. I’ll try to catch you up with the full party report tomorrow when I’m more rested. But now I’m going to go apologize to my Dad and my nine-year-old niece because I growled at them.

Goodnight.

If you’re looking at this then you know I am using the “post ahead” feature of blogging. I’m so thankful that there is such a feature because today is going to be a big day and I don’t think I’ll have a chance to post before midnight.

Toby and I are going to a fancy party tonight (hopefully fancy shoe shots to come tomorrow if Toby doesn’t kill me for taking pictures of my feet all the time).

Can you believe it? Toby and I are actually going out and leaving Baby Bug at home with her Gramma and Papa (my parents). I’m getting hives just thinking about it. I know most of you have left your babies long before they were two but I AM A FREAK! We do everything together ALL DAY LONG!!!! I feel like I’m betraying her if I abandon her for even a minute.

Yes, I know I am wrong. And yes, I know it is good for her to be independent but….

Will she be able to go to sleep without me? Will she wake up crying for her pacifier (”pah”) and then get scared when I’m not there to retrieve it for her? What if she cries the entire night? What if Papa decides it’s high time she learned to “cry it out” and she cries the entire night!!! And the kicker question: Will I be able to enjoy myself at this adult party without worrying about Baby Bug every minute?

Probably not. But it is supposed to be a really fun party. I’ll keep you posted.