S's Tea Birthday Party

When my children turn 8 years old they are able to have a birthday party with friends. All their other birthdays are done on a much smaller scale, like immediate family. S wanted to have a tea party, so we sort of had one...with an 8 year old twist. For lunch we had a fruit tray, a vegetable tray with dip, a cracker tray, and lemonade. We played "Pin the purse on the girl", a get-to-know-you game with M&M's, and they had to unwrap a present using only a knife and a spoon. Inside it was Lip Smackers for everyone. We painted little flower pots, and made Tussie Mussie's. (Do you know what a Tussie Mussie is? I didn't. It's a small bouquet of flowers the ladies used to carry on walks so they could smell fresh flowers instead of the stinky streets. Funny huh!) We opened presents and sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes, a Sherbet/Sprite drink, Rice Krispie Treats (using Dino Bites instead of rice krispies), and butter mints. It went pretty good. I was running a little behind so Dad and D decorated the cupcakes while Mom held H and I did crafts. We had 13 girls and one small neighbor boy plus my 6 kids, a couple mom's and some small siblings and my Mom and Dad and D and K. It was a full house! The party itself went really well. It's the unexpected things that tend to stress me out. The party was suppose to be outside and today the grass was flooded. I guess maybe it has been getting too much water lately so we had a lake in our back yard. Then we actually had some little fights. Most of these girls didn't even know each other and a couple of them still got into little girl fights. It was kind of weird. Also, it was about 105 degrees and the wind was blowing so the weather wasn't that great and then we got attacked by grasshoppers. They were everywhere. On the tables, in our hair, on the windows, all over the grass and cement. We had several cups full of grasshoppers (NOT on the party agenda). They were even coming in my house. I've never seen that many around. It was crazy! Other than those few things, I think S had a really good day. She is hoping she wakes up tomorrow and the whole day starts over again. Funny story: I was putting the kids to bed and A comes to me all worried. She says, "We forgot to do the most important thing today. We forgot to baptize S." I told her that was in a couple of weeks. She was a little confused. It's funny to look at things from a child's perspective. Why would she think anything differently. We have always said, "When you turn 8 then you get baptized." So S turned 8 and we forgot to baptize her. It's days like these that make me thankful for all my blessings. I love being a mom!!!