Summer Birthday

This has been one of the busiest summers I can remember. I don't know if it really is all that busy, but because I'm right in the middle of all the craziness it just seems really busy. There's been virtually no downtime, and the few days that the girls and I have hung out at home they've complained. Anyway, because we've been on the go so much, we've been creating lots of memories, but few are getting recorded. Time to backtrack a little and remember some of the highlights.

In January when we were driving home from California, Brita and Leah decided to plan Leah's 10th birthday party to pass the time while sitting in the back seat of the van amidst all of their pillows, books, stuffed animals, wrappers and other junk. They planned out most of the details of a Harry Potter party. I  thought this was interesting because I didn't know Leah was that into Harry Potter, but she was super excited about it and who am I to kill a kid's enthusiasm over her own birthday party?

Jared was equally enthused because he loves it when the girls are constructively creative, and I played along because I didn't want to be the usual sourpus. I figure it's easy for Jared to be enthused when he does virtually nothing to help prepare for these things, but my preference is for destination parties. That way the mess isn't mine to clean up, the entertainment responsibilities belong to someone else, and the days leading up to the party are carefree and allow me to indulge my lazy tendencies.

But like I said, I played along, mostly because I figured that by the time her birthday came six months down the road, she'd either forget about the party they'd planned or I'd be able to convince her how fun a party at someplace besides our house could be. Well, neither of those things happened, and as a result, my summer that I had scheduled full with cleaning and organization projects quickly became clogged up with google searches for crafts and party ideas, intermixed with frantic trips to Hobby Lobby to purchase supplies I had never heard of before.

While I did have to be really organized (because we ended up taking a quick trip to Idaho and didn't return until the day before her party) and run to the store several times, I developed a pretty strict hands-off policy for the planning of this party. I've intervened lots in the past, but this time the girls did such a great job planning different stations and coming up with fantastic ideas, and I wanted them to gain the confidence that comes from knowing that this party was theirs. I loved how they handed me a list of things they needed and they took care of the rest. Such initiative. Such responsibility. Those are my girls!

The day of the party, Leah was so excited and I was so glad she was happy on her birthday. She invited a bunch of darling girls and the party was a huge success...mostly because Leah was thrilled that she had planned it all and that most of her cute friends were able to come.

We started with the sorting hat, mostly just as a formality because when I asked Leah if she wanted to split the girls up in different stations she remarked that it wouldn't be fair to all of the girls who weren't in her group...since it was her party and all.

At the beginning of the party, Professor Snape stormed through the door giving all of the girls detention. Then he gave Leah a hug. (And that's pretty much how Jared celebrated his birthday that he shares with Leah.)

Then we did different activities for each of the houses of Hogwartz. For Gryffindor we did a courage test - each of the girls ate one of those Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. Some of them were good and some were disgusting. They were pretty funny about it - some made a huge deal over the grossness and others loved it when they ate a vomit or centipede flavor. Snape got in on this one and chewed up his skunk spray flavor like it was no big deal and the girls thought it was hilarious.

For Hufflepuff we made candles in our nice warm garage, but no one seemed to mind. They had fun mixing colors and making designs.

Then we moved onto the slime making portion of the party in honor of the house of Slytherin. Once again, some of the girls couldn't wait to get their hands in that bucket and run the slime through their fingers while others didn't want a thing to do with it.

We had to skip Ravenclaw, where they had planned to play Harry Potter Scene-It, but it was either that or open gifts and it's not hard to guess which one won that battle.

We finished off with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a quick group photo before I shuttled all the giggly girls back to their homes.

Once all the guests were gone, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, Luna Lovegood, Harry Potter, and Tinkerbell (who rounded off the "Harry Potter" family) got cleaned up and went to Carrabas with Jared's mom and dad.

But not before Leah got her present that she had been patiently waiting all day to receive.

Leah was in the clouds for most of dinner reliving all the fun of her super fun party and thinking about all the good things that happened to her just because she turned ten. I'd say the party was even better because I kept my hands out of it and I'm sure it was more fun for Leah to throw a party she planned than to have some "destination people" somewhere do the whole thing for her. I'm leaving important things like parties up to the ten- and eleven-year old from now on!