The Sleepover Birthday and how I told Pinterest I just want to be friends.

My first-born just turned 10.

It was a big deal because my tear ducts told me so. I didn't cry on the last day of preschool. I didn't cry the day my youngest went to Kindergarten. But I cried for two days when my big girl turned 10. The emotion totally ambushed me. I feel like I might blink and she'll be in college.

That may have been one reason why her tenth party was a hard one for me to plan. Subconsciously. Also, it was a challenge because awesome blog friend Denise inspired me to let my daughter choose everything because that's what she did for her daughter's birthday a few months ago. Besides obviously limiting the cost, really the only thing I kept control over was the number of kids. I held it at 6 for our first sleepover.

I even chose not to persuade her to invite the friend she didn't really want to, even though I knew it would lead to conflict on the grown-up end of things. Which it did. And which made me hold my ground more firmly. It was her Tenth Birthday. I chose to protect and respect her special day as much as possible.

Turns out, my girl is an awesome party planner. It went like this.

Craft (a la Deep Space Sparkle).
Swimming (a la community pool).
Pizza.
Dance party with dress up and karaoke (a la Taylor Swift and drama).
Dessert (this is where Pinterest comes in).
PJ time.
Mad libs in sleeping bags.
Sleeping (this part was way too short).
Waffle bar (a la mommy).
More karaoke.

And for some reason, it turned out to be the least expensive party we've ever had. Because they don't really make dress up attire for ten year olds, I bought six brightly colored fancy dresses at the second-hand store. They were between $3-6 each and were a huge hit. We had a zillion feather boas already. From my Vegas days. J/K. We bought a pad of "Sleepover Mad Libs" at the bookstore, tissue for pom poms to hang from the ceiling and 30 balloons for the garage-turned-dance-party. I even purchased take and bake pizzas from our grocery store deli for a fraction of the price of the fancy local pizza pub we usually order from.

And since I'm a slow joiner sometimes, I finally got on the Pinterest train and looked for ideas for sleepovers, favors, and special desserts. Well, after logging a few hours over a few days, I did not have butterflies in my stomach for Pinterest. I did not want to marry it or lose sleep dreaming about it. In fact, I came up with better ideas for favors my big girl self.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. I looked around my house and got inspired by the resources I already had. Namely, fabric. I also had a dozen plain clipboards for a project that has been on hold for like a year. Fabric plus Mod Podge plus clipboards equals super cute Mad Libs time. I spent $4 on pencils and colorful artificial flowers from the Dollar Tree and wrapped them to the tops of the pencils with green masking tape. These favors won't give a kid cavities or end up in the trash next week.

And since I get carried away, I also made matching pillow cases for the girls, with a felt monogram top-stitched on. Those cost me about $4 for the ribbon trim I added. I started to think I just didn't need Pinterest in my life to be happy.

But Pinterest, feeling jilted, decided to show up and try to impress me. My daughter requested brownies and ice cream for her special birthday dessert, and I found this idea to make a regular brownie more special. Brownie Bowls. Like, a bowl that you fill with something good and then eat it because it's also really good. Serious.

So I said, "Okay Pinterest. ONE date."

I had to order the molds - I bought two packs of two - from the company in Wisconsin (not sure why it has Chicago in the title). With the second-day air delivery, I threw down $30 for them. Still less than we've spent on some fancy OC bakery birthday cakes in the past, but I could use these molds again and again, right?

And use them I will. They were worth every penny. Love love love. I even followed the from-scratch recipe for Hot Chocolate Brownies on the same blog post I was led to via Pinterest and it was perfection! I considered photos and description of the whole process, but then that's what this other blog friend already did. I followed her whole procedure (though I doubled the recipe) and it all worked beautifully. She has lovely STEP-BY-STEP instructions and photos.

The birthday guests were so excited to decorate their sundaes in brownie bowls, and most importantly, my daughter loved them. Late that night, I finally made my own sundae (with some peach sangria on the side).

In my sugared/sangria-d state, the brownie bowls made me call up Pinterest in a moment of weakness and lead it on a bit. I knew it could impress me once; maybe it had potential for a long term relationship. But then I thought of all the girls it's disappointed. So many instagrams labeled "Pinterest fail!" Such a mixed reputation. All in all, I think I can handle a party pretty well on my own. And I decided I'm just not gonna be that girl doing drive-bys and smiling at Pinterest just because it's the talk of the town.

Pinterest, for now I just want to be friends. Redheads are a little spicy like that.

{Enjoy a few more glimpses of my girl's super special day. Each of us felt it exceeded our expectations. All the work and heart I put in truly paid off in fun and memories for us all. Here's hoping those memories last, because I think she may go off to college before I know it.}

 

The Force made me do it: A Jedi party

Last weekend was the first of our two kids' birthdays, which both fall at the end of May.
My Star Wars loving son turned 7. His party on Saturday was therefore Star Wars-themed, but also Lego-influenced, because when given the choice, he prefers Lego Star Wars stuff to just regular Star Wars stuff. It's a big deal.

So what I do, during party season, is get a little theme-crazed and go overboard with ideas. I'm good at brainstorming, less good at time-budgeting, so that's a problem. But, ya know, I can sleep when I'm dead.

The Force first led me to these (the Force is all into etsy these days). Raddest invites ever. You send ewehoo your child's photo, and he becomes the star in a little print-it-yourself 8 pg comic book ending at the invite.

The party was costume-optional, and somehow we had no costumes ourselves. So I then followed/improvised a tutorial for a hooded poncho and made Jedi robes for my people.

Seriously, it was so easy I'm not even going to describe it. If you want to know, find a tutorial on Pinterest (which are mainly for little kids' beach ponchos) to get the general concept. Then do the same on a giant brown towel. The towels cost $7 each and it took three to make both robes (I cut the two hoods from the third towel). The kids are excited to use them after swimming or the beach too. But for now, here is some dramatic Jedi fighting in a dark kitchen so the lightsabers looked cooler.

I also made this bunting from a Star Wars sheet that had a run in with a jar of Mod Podge. Had to repurpose what was salvageable from that baby.

And big sister made this, the morning of the party, in honor of her brother. She even added R2's rusty spot. Such a thoughtful girl.

Back to the party.
First, 10 wild little people were funneled to a table covered in Legos. This portion was called "Buying me more time to get things ready".

Then we ate dinner, all items chosen by my little Jedi: Doritos Tacos from Taco Bell, I mean, from Tatooine, taquitos, Bantha Fodder beans and rice, Chewbacca chips and salsa, Ewok snacks (pretzels and grapes), you get the idea. The beverage was Jedi Juice, which looked awesome in my dispenser but I forgot to take a photo of it: strawberry lemonade, cranberry juice, and sparkling water.

Remember these rocks we painted last summer?? They were good weights.

Next we had our Tie-Fighter/X-wing bean bag toss. Each line of kids was either a team of Tie-fighters or X-wings. You drop the bag, your ship is toast. Last man standing wins for the team. That way I didn't have to buy prizes. What they won was PRIDE for being on the winning side! Sounds lame but it actually worked.

Then, my favorite part: Jedi training school, led by my little Jedi, in preparation for the big pool-noodle lightsaber battle. (Yep, I'm a risk taker in the name of fun.) This was ALL his idea, start to finish. I helped him write the curriculum. I was pretty shocked at his comfort level speaking to the group, as well as his ability to communicate his ideas. He had a lot of very specific ideas. I added some rules.

(Directions on the pool noodle sabers: Cut a pool noodle to about 36". Wrap about 10 inches with silver duct tape. Add strips of black electrical tape for detail. Don't forget a small square of red tape or else your Jedi may freak out that there is no way to turn the fake lightsaber on.)  He wanted a purple saber, just like Mace Windu. It's a big deal, I told you.

He also wanted his "class" to have demos on all the moves. He called up different volunteers each time to help him demonstrate. Jedis are good jumpers.

On the count of three, after all the kids were moved to the battlefield (cul-de-sac), the battle commenced. Which meant that 10 kids flew at each other swinging. It was pure, wild, hysterical chaos for a solid fifteen minutes. And thank you JESUS there was not a single tear or injury! I took some video of the battle and it was super funny. We had some "safe" territory so they could rest and catch their breath every few minutes. But it wasn't long before each was back in the action. Naturally, every picture is BLURRY.

Then came my second favorite part. The Jedi Award ceremony, where I gave them all new Jedi names and placed a medal of honor around each of their necks. They LOVED it, and giggled at everyone's altered name.

(These were made from wooden ornaments from the craft store, which I painted metallic gold and used sparkly and metallic paper on one side for the name labels. Artsy husband made me a template for the Jedi insignia I traced onto the other side and filled in with a Sharpie Paint pen.)

We sang happy birthday, and my little Jedi blew his candle out on the big pile of churros. Yep, again his choice for dessert. And just as it was getting dark, we started the movie Return of the Jedi on the big screen on our garage. The kids and grown-ups plopped into beach chairs, hauled out the blankets and grabbed a box of popcorn. All the little Jedis in the front row watched this classic with rapture. Well, after they danced behind the screen for a while when it was being set up.

It was an awesome night. I loved all the details, and so did my son. Of course he has no idea that I spent every free moment for two weeks working on it. But it doesn't matter. I saw him wear a perma-smile for about four hours, and I'm pretty sure he felt loved. Did I need to do all that for him to smile and feel loved on his birthday? Of course not. But I like to. It's my thing. It's the family culture I was raised in, and it's one time of year I can take the opportunity to bless my kid in a creative way.

Well, I guess he wasn't smiling whenever he was making cool and serious and silly Jedi faces.

Nothing went wrong, no one cried, no one got injured, and I didn't forget anything too significant. Except to slice and bring out the watermelon. But I didn't hear anyone say, "HEY! Why isn't there watermelon at this party!?"

We handed out my all time favorite party favor at the end: mix tapes (except there's no such thing as tapes anymore; I just want to call them that still. I don't care what size and shape the format is, they will always be mix tapes to me.) The compilation was half John Williams soundtrack music from Star Wars and half ultra annoying kid techno such as the Gummy Bear song and the Hamster Dance. Are these even really songs? I should have enclosed an apology.

Check out the labels I made. This is the easiest thing ever and once you make CDs for a party, you'll never hand out another sack of lame favors again. Promise. The labels are just an Avery label product you can get at any office supply store. You go onto their website, open the template, drop a photo and some text onto the template and save and print the file. I don't worry about listing out the song names. A cute label is enough. The actual songs can just be a big surprise to your recipients.  So awesome, right? And from the feedback we've had over the years when we've handed out CDs, the kids LOVE to have a customized CD of their friend's favorite music. It's a gift that really lasts.

It was a lot of planning, and it was an exhausting, late night. But memories were certainly made.

All in all, I'd say the Force was with us.