It's MY Party and I'll Go Crazy If I Want To!

Birthday Parties. Specifically my girls birthday parties. I love them. Anyone who knows me well and has been to one of MY parties knows that is the understatement of the year.

With four girls birthdays within a 6 week period from February 1 to March 12, I begin planning the parties the day after Christmas in nothing less than an OCD spectacular way. From obsessing over the theme, to creating the perfect homemade invitations, to the elaborate decorations, activities, goody bags...it is insanity at its finest.

Just in case my children forget the amazing displays of love I provided them via birthday parties, I thought I'd chronicle some of my favorite birthday party themes and memories. After 24 kids birthdays (thats right! 9+7+5+3=24 birthdays), I've got lots of material for this one!...

Let's start with the first one. Evie Jill's first birthday. Unfortunatley, that is before the digital era, and I wouldn't know the first thing about scanning a hard copy pic in, so you will have to use your imagination. I was a totally smitten new mom. We had almost no friends and no money at this time. I remember that Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe were in town and my OCD for this event manifested itself in a PERFECTLY frosted Minnie Mouse cake. I squeezed out perfect little stars in all the right colors to create the pattern until 1:00am in the morning. It was a sight to behold and there was talk of me going into the birthday cake making business. I think I have made one more painstakingly detailed cake since then and have now happily passed this particular torch onto my sister-in-law Julia, who has proven - at least in the pictures I have seen - to posess the artistic talent AND the patience to do such cakes year after year for her children.

I also recollect Evie's 3rd birthday when we had a party at the house with her neighborhood friends. The event that stands out to me in my mind was that I gave myself a concussion that was ER worthy, but I kept on going! I had moved our kitchen table to put a little wicker set in its place and we had this awful, heavy, glass shaded chandelier hanging over it. I was stooped under it and stood up right into it, nearly knocking the daylights out of me. The parents there stopped and I was like..."no problem! I'm fine!" I am dazed and confused and stoop down again and then stand up AGAIN into it! The rest of the party is a little fuzzy after that, but somehow I managed to continue being the hostess with the mostess until it was done.

Mady's 3rd birthday stands out in my mind because she wanted her ears pierced so badly. She put on her prettiest dress and hairbow and grabbed her purse and we went off to the mall. She was just amazing. The first squeeze of the earring gun, all she said was "ow." They did the next ear and she said "ow." and then gazed at her lovely red earrings in the mirror. She then hopped off the stool and literally strutted her sassy self down the hallway of the mall...she was so pleased with herself, I will never forget that sassy strut after that big 3 year old got her ears pierced!

Okay, I really got cooking by the time Evie's 4th birthday came around...unfortunately I think this was still shy of the digital camera age. Despite my 8 months pregnant status with Sarah, I made this a little girls dream come true party. My mother-in-law makes porcelin dolls. I had her make four porcelin baby dolls for Evie and her 3 friends in advance of the party. She went all out...they were gorgeous and she made intricately beautiful dresses and bonnets for each one too. For the party, the four girls created a basket bed for their dolls with ribbon and fabric, and made a little blanket and pillow. Then they each named their dolls. They were mezmorized and the porcelin baby dolls were treasured keepsakes.

Okay, for Evie's 5th birthday we are now in the digital age. This was the year of the Rainbow Party. All the girls came dressed in rainbow colors, I had rainbow streamers that they walked through to get to the party zone. CJ and I had blown up a zillion balloons the night before to completely cover the family room floor, so it was like they were wading into a rainbow cloud. I had a rainbow streamer backdrop for photo ops. We had stations that the girls visited where they got their hair done, nails painted, put on lipgloss, and made a rainbow beaded bracelet. It was such a hit!

Mady's 2nd birthday was very memorable to me because I gave birth to Sarah 4 days after the party, and let me tell you, I was huge and uncomfortable. I almost didn't do a party, but decided to do something very simple for her. I will never forget the point where we were going to do Ring-Around-The-Rosy and The Hokey Pokey to music in the family room. None of the moms wanted to participate (thanks friends! :) ), so there I am, my huge 9 months preggers self, holding hands in a circle with about 6 two-year olds "all fall down"-ing to all the verses of Ring Around the Rosy, and doing the Hokey Pokey and turning myself about. It was a pitiful site, thank goodness there is no photo documentation!...and no wonder I gave birth 4 days later!

Sarah Rose got a very Rosy party for her 1st birthday. Everything was roses...invitations, paper goods, little rose shaped cakes, rose balloons, and bunches of roses on all the tables. It was lovely...are you beginning to wonder who these parties are actually for??? :)

The year 2005 I was once again hugely preggers with Grace during the 6 week birthday extravaganza. Lucky for Evie, she is the first one off the starting gates with Feb. 1. That year she got a stellar Chef Party hosted by CJ and I at our house. I made aprons for each girl and had three stations to rotate between: make your own pizza, decorate your own cake, and a paper pizza making, measuring/egg cracking station.

It was a huge hit and so much fun!

(I feel it ever so important to note that in the chef picture of CJ and I, I am nearly 9 months pregnant. Thank you.)

I totally exhausted myself with the chef party, and three weeks later, ever more pregnant, I just couldn't fathom another home party, so I combined Mady's 4th and Sarah's 2nd parties and had it at Gymboree where they did most of the work. Except I couldn't help myself from having a little control, and so I created individual themes for each girl with homemade invitations and special goodie buckets for their friends. Mady's theme was hearts and Sarah's was rubber duckies.

Madeline's 5th birthday I did a pink, frothy, sparkley, spectacular, princess tea party. When the girls arrived they chose a hat, beads, and ring. We had tea sandwiches and dainties and it was lovely. The girls practiced their curtseys and made hand held princess mirrors. I remember wishing I was a 5 year old girl...

Sarah's 3rd was a Lollipop party....we played "pin the lolly on the pop", musical chairs, and relays involving candy. Good Times.

I started losing some of my momentum around this time as I was seeing the enormity of coming up with 4 spectacular birthday parties in a 6 week period every year. So, I confess that the two youngest ones have not had the consistent extravaganza's that the older two have had. Poor Grace has never actually had a birthday party in her first 3 years of life!! Now lets be honest here...she is the fourth born and I have not had time to foster any playdate friendships for her. I just do not hang out at the park or do weekly mommy/child playdates with other mommies anymore like I did with the first and second born. So Grace actually only has two friends. But with those two friends I am already developing in my head a spectacular "Orange" party for her 4th birthday in March. Grace loves the color orange, and I plan to "orange" her socks off for her first official birthday party on her 4th birthday!

For Evie's 7th bday, knowing I was facing 4 birthdays in a row for the first year, I decided to farm out control of her party for the first time. We went to one of those salon places where the girls dress up and get their hair and make up done and walk a catwalk. Sounded good in theory, but this particular place just didn't have it together. I was secretly so disappointed with the party (the 7 yr olds did have fun, but I have very high standards for parties!) and felt like I could have done a million times better at home, so I didn't do another party at a location other than my home where I could be a control freak for a couple years.

Sarah's 4th birthday was a rather pitiful, throw together at the last minute, picnic at the park with her little friends. What made this day very memorable was that I brought a huge bouquet of balloons that we were going to write messages on for the kids and then we were going to have them let them go so they could float up to Jesus so He could have a party. Well, Sarah was so excited about this huge bouquet of balloons and she was so cute walking around with them....until...the weight that they were all tied to was not attached tightly, and right at the start of the party all the balloons detatched from the weight when she set them down and away they flew in a big glob! Sarah was devastated and wailed and wailed "my baloooooooons! my ballooooooons!" It was so sad...I tried to convince her that Jesus must really have needed them for a party right then and there and she should try to imagine how happy he is with all those balloons right now. Just look at this sad face...

Evie's 8th birthday was truly as good as it gets for a little girl...and her mom....She was into the American Girl thing by this time after having gotten Samantha for her 7th birthday. I planned a weekend at the huge American Girl store in Chicago and Evie and I flew there on her birthday weekend and met up with my mom who joined us for the adventure. Every moment was so special. Evie got her dolls hair done, a magazine cover pic with her and her doll in matching outfits, we ate in the fabulous AG cafe, we saw a wonderful AG play, Evie bought Nicki with the birthday money she had saved, we had fun swimming at the hotel, watching a movie and playing a hilarious game...it was perfect, and I can't wait to do it again, hopefully, with each of the other three girls.

Madeline's 6th was another favorite of mine. She loved the whole rock star and american idol concept, but also loved Polly Pockets....what to do, what to do. So, I created the theme of American Idol: Polly Pocket Edition.

I greeted each girl at the door with a golden ticket to Pollywood, and they hung their audition number around their necks. CJ played the role of Ryan Seacrest while they ate, going around the table interviewing the girls, and later we rocked out on the karaoke to High School Musical and Hannah Montana. I think CJ and I had as much fun as the girls!

Can you see the OCD in these pictures? The cards hanging around their necks, I drew and colored in individually, and the American Idol pink back drop for the group pic I free-handed by looking at an actual American Idol logo. Kept me up late the night before, but so worth it! :)

For Sarah's 5th birthday this year I decided to try another location party and we chose bowling. But to put my own flair on it, I made super cute bowling invitations and a homemade bowling alley cake, and the "piece de resistance", bowling shirts for all the kids which had a bowling pin in the front with their name on it, and on the back a big bowling ball with "Team Rock and Rosy Bowlers" in black and hot pink. Huge hit and they looked so cute! It was pretty crazy at the bowling alley, not the controlled chaos that I am able to have at home parties. But it was memorable and fun.

Sarah had double the fun for her 5th birthday, because I also took her to Charlotte, NC to spend the weekend with her fairy godsister, Ashley, for a day of beauty at Sweet & Sassy. She had the best time being pampered with a pedicure, face mask, manicure, shampoo, hair cut, style, makeup and finally ear piercing. It was not the experience that I shared about 3 year old Mady's little "ow" above. Instead it was an all out wail for 30 minutes which culminated in us going to target for antibiotic ointment and tylenol. But that's Sarah...I wouldn't expect any less of a reaction from her. :)

Madeline has been into collecting garbage...er, I mean treasures...for a couple years now, and she also loves tiny things. So this combined into my theme for her 7th birthday party this year: Tiny Treasures. I sent tiny 2 inch square invites with the smallest font possible. The girls got tiny crowns to wear and we had a tiny tea party at the table. Then they had a tiny treasure hunt with tiny little clues that they had to read with magnifying glasses. We rounded it out with the requisite pinata. It was good times. :)

I decided to try an away party this year for Evie's 9th birthday. I have found that it is best to mix up home and away parties each birthday season so I don't get burnout. I had already staked out the bead place and found the owner to be delightful and planned the party there where many 9 year olds gathered to each make a beaded necklace. The theme was puppies, as Evie is a complete animal lover. The lovely cake you see pictured was a gorgeous shaggy dog when I picked it up and when I got to the bead place it looked like you see in the picture. I took photo documentation so I could get my $40 back, but alas, this busy mom never did make it back to the bakery to complain. It still tasted good, and all the girls enjoyed the new beautiful necklaces they had made.

Last but not least....the Goo. Poor girl, she is an unlucky one to be the 4th birthday in a 6 week period. I confessed earlier that I have never given her a party. Further confession to reveal to you is that I had to really hunt for these three pics of her on the three birthdays she has had thus far. Aparantly I have not taken the time to organize Grace's online photo folder very well. Those poor fourth borns. But rest assured, she is well loved by all even though I don't have photo proof of it! :)

Thanks for hanging in there with me, if you did indeed make it to the end of this! I sure enjoyed walking down memory lane and reminding myself that my children have not yet sucked all the creative life out of me. I sure do hope they have fond memories of their birthdays when they get older. And, well, Grace...I'll help pay for the therapy bills. :)