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Rapunzel’s Tenth Birthday Party
My niece, Rapunzel (not her real name) is turning ten on Memorial Day but nobody ever can come to her party on Memorial Day so she had her birthday party today. Most of her class couldn’t come today either but that’s because unbeknownst to us, another boy in her class had a pool party at the exact same time. Pool parties seem to trump everything when you’re ten.
Nevertheless, I think the party was a huge success! I’m starting to think I like smaller parties better anyway. You get more time to play games and interact with all the kids. The children who came are the same kids who came last year and the year before. They’re keepers. I hope she stays friends with them forever.
We didn’t go crazy with decorations or party games. We could have but time sort of ran out. My sister-in-law, CC, was going to make malasadas (Hawaiian potato doughnuts) but they fell by the wayside and were not missed a bit.
CC made her famous bundt cake (It’s so yummy! The recipe is on her blog) and we decorated it like an island. I’m particularly proud of the palm trees. They are pirouette cookies stuffed with apple flavored sour punch straws on one end. Getting the “foliage” to stay in the pirouette cookies wasn’t exactly easy but some thread and a toothpick seemed to do the trick. The sand or “coral pebbles” are just rice crispies and the “lava” is chocolate ganache.
Besides more food than we could ever possibly eat, there were more presents than anybody could ever want. I didn’t include any pictures but I’m sure CC will link some later. My niece now has enough clothes now to go a whole year without ever wearing the same outfit twice. Yeah, I’m jealous. But she’s been growing a lot so this is a good thing. I remember those tween years well. I think a lot of clothes would have made it a lot easier for me back then. Don’t even get me started on the homemade jumpers my mom used to make me wear.
birthday party obstacle course from comfortablycrazy on Vimeo.It was a really fun party. Especially the obstacle course. I was supposed to make a mermaid tail for the kids to jump in gunny-sack-style but I sort of forgot to get around to that. I don’t think anyone noticed. We found an out-of-date mail bag in the ever-present junk pile that is my mom’s carport. I know. Who has mail bags sitting around? Apparently we do. Along with everything else under the sun. But that’s another blog post.
For now we are going to sit around and be fat and happy that another party is in the can. The mess will still be there tomorrow.
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Happy Mother’s Day!
I am agreeing with my old friend Nicole that mother’s day is not just a day but a weekend. I didn’t mean it to be this way but since it is just Baby Bug and I and I can do whatever I want (since I’m the boss afterall) we made it that way. Really, every day has been mother’s day.
When I think about mother’s day, so many days come flooding to my memory. Those mornings that my brother and I would get up super early and sneak out of the house to steal dewy sweetpeas from our neighbor’s yard so we could put them in a vase and surprise my mom. Those many crafts we made at school… the years we forgot, the years we remembered and then as we got older how we over-compensated for the years we forgot with super-expensive gift certificates to the spa… So many memories.
I think the day I most remember of all my mothering days was that second day in the hospital. The late morning after she was born. Toby had gone home to sleep after staying up all night long and it was just me and her. The nurses were gone. I picked up my camera and took this picture:
I’m so glad Baby Bug was born in the digital age. I’m so glad I’m the kind of girl who has her camera handy at all times. I don’t think if I was still shooting film, with my big fat lens, I would have even brought it to the hospital. I know I wouldn’t have stuck it in her face. But my digital camera is small, so small I thought nothing of digging it out of my purse and documenting this wonder that I held tangible in my arms for the first time in my life.
I don’t mean to be selfish and push Toby out of this moment but it truly was the most beautiful moment in my entire life. It was just me and her and I knew the rest of my life was never ever going to be the same. I remember everything. I remember those flowers that my in-laws sent. I remember the view out the hospital window. I remember staring at her until I thought my eyes would break. It was the most precious of times. When I talk to expectant mothers now, I try and try to explain what that day was like for me but my words fall short.
I think that was the best mother’s day of my life.
That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and live up every other mother’s day in my life. Oh no! We are going to pull out all the stops and have a whole weekend of mother’s day stuff. Like chocolate pancakes for breakfast and picking flowers from our neighbor’s yard. Painting all day and then pizza for dinner! And that was only Saturday! I have no idea what we’ll be doing Sunday.
Happy Mother’s Day everybody! Go give your mom a hug!
