I'm never sure if I am grateful that I don't have to pay for overpriced parties at that point, or overwhelmed that now I have to plan everything by myself.
Anyway, I always fell better when I have some sort of theme or direction. Since she was hoping that we would have snow to go sledding a short walk from our house, we called it a "Snow Day Party".
And of course there was no snow in sight, with a high of 50 or so that day.
I follow a blog that I just adore. She is an amazing seamstress that makes really fun things for her girls, but she also throws amazing birthday parties. At first I thought she was nuts, but she said something that stuck with me. She said that the reason she does it is because she enjoys creating and planning everything with her daughters. In her mind, the party itself was barely important. She loved that her girls made all of the props with her and imagined all the games and THAT was why they planned the elaborate treasure hunts and such.
With that goal in mind, I let Kaitlyn lead the way on games. Well, we were both guided by Pinterest. But she had the final say. My favorite part was the Penguin toss.
I outlined a penguin in marker and handed her the box of crayons. I made a pattern for the felt "fish", and she cut them out and sewed them. She really liked making those beanbags! It turns out, actually, that tossing the fish is not as fun as climbing under the penguin.
I think the entire party crammed in there together at one point.
I'll admit that Kaitlyn wasn't involved in every project fully, but sometimes I just had too much fun.
The warm weather turned out to be a great bonus, because the kids zipped through all the games I prepped really fast and then just headed outside to play on the playset. Parties are always a bit of chaos- in fact, this year I was excited to serve sno cones with the machine we got for Christmas, froze half a dozen ice blocks ready to go, and then had the nagging feeling I was forgetting something until everyone was gone and I found it buried behind sprinkles and pizza boxes on the counter. Oops! But Kaitlyn had a great time with her friends, and that is all that matters.
On her birthday itself, I told her that I could make anything she wanted for dinner or we could go anywhere, and she picked Arctic Circle of all places. They are cheaper that McDonalds, but my kids love the play place and the free, tiny ice cream cones.
As a bonus, her class started taking home Ponko the Penguin and writing in the book about their adventures with him, and she got to be the first one to take him since it was her birthday.
So we had to make sure and pose with him all over the restaurant.
My goofy Tyler.
Kaitlyn was in heaven because the nice manager (truly, she is an awesome little lady) saw the birthday hat and told her to pick out any sundae she wanted for free.
We also had cake at Grandma's house that Sunday.
I really should have brought my good camera. She picked out a Phineas and Ferb cake largely because Agent P popped out from behind the tree when you pulled on one of the branches. Amazing!
The last part of Kaitlyn's birthday has been postponed a couple of times, but I promised her it would happen soon. She is really looking forward to going ice skating again, but the "small and tall" ice times are during school hours. (I would really like to know who on earth planned that. They didn't even run it during the summer.) The day after her birthday, we ended up all going to a space center with Tyler's class field trip instead. And then the next Thursday was the 100th day of school, which has somehow turned into an exciting holiday. So hopefully this week we'll pull her out of a nice, regular day of school and try skating again.
In the meantime, here are my annual thoughts on Miss Kaitlyn:
*I am constantly amazed by how much she picks up quite naturally. She can add and subtract two digit numbers, read chapter books, and is pretty good at almost everything she tries. But she also doesn't have any competitive or driven spirit for it all. She just floats over to things, does pretty well, and is perfectly content with that.
*She is still a talker! All day, every day, she wants to talk to friends and tell stories. Her class has been working on comprehension, but she certainly never has a problem with that. When I ask her any question after she reads a story, she proceeds to tell me every single detail in the entire story nearly word for word. Her stories do tend to wander a bit, and sometimes I have to hurry that poor girl along because I need to keep moving, but I do love listening to all of her tales.
*She is truly a wonderful person who wants to be a good friend to everyone she knows. She does her best to help me and her siblings. I'm trying to remember the last time she got in trouble for something, and all I can think of is talking when it isn't time to talk. We took her out of dance class because we realized that she was only there for social time with friends instead of become a better dancer. And we have a structure with her piano teacher for how she will pay us back if she goofs off and doesn't focus while she is there. But she isn't doing it out of bad intentions! She just honestly wants to play and be silly with her friends.
*Sometimes she is amazingly brave, and then sometimes she is my sensitive little girl. She has no problem performing piano in front of dozens or even a hundred or more people, or gymnastics, or anything else. But every once in a while she comes into a new situation with people she doesn't know and she just snuggles into my side with these sweet little tears. I always remind myself to try and see things from her perspective, because often the things that break her seem inconsequential in comparison to things she does without batting an eyelash.
*Her current happy noise is "da!" It usually means "yes", and she always has a huge, open grin after she says it. I'm not sure where she got it from, but it cracks me up!
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