I Hate Parties but I love My Little Girl!

Last year Emma started asking why she couldn’t have a "friend" birthday party. We told her she could when she turned eight. Well her 8th birthday is right around the corner. Sigh…

We were going to have a party at the Build a Bear Workshop. We thought she could pick four friends, build a bear, open gifts and be done. The store doesn’t open until September 15th and won’t be ready for parties until after her birthday. So we scratched that idea.

We decided to have a girl party in our backyard (we won’t even talk about how much work our yard needs) Emma wanted a princess party, not a Disney Princess party, just a princess party. Do you know how hard it is to find generic princess stuff? It is very difficult indeed.

I had found some cute pink girly Lisa Frank things and plain pink plates, napkins and cups at the dollar store. When I showed them to her I could tell it was not what she had planned on. I hated to spend tons of money on fancy paper goods that would end up in the garbage. I was back to square one.

I searched the internet and finally found everything I think we need to make Emma’s party the one she has always wanted. $100 later we will have a tiara piñata, a crown that you get to put glitter glue and jewels on, a balloon relay race with a prize in the balloons, organza gift bags with beads, glass slippers, stickers, eraser, pencil, lip gloss or body glitter in them, princess loot bags to put the piñata candy in, a centerpiece, banner and mylar balloon to pull the plain pink and princess theme together. I hope she loves it.

The trick now is getting the invite list narrowed down. Each and every day she has new people that she wants to invite. A lot of these kids I don’t know. I don’t know where they live or how to get their invitations to them. I am worried about hurting some girls’ feelings. I am worried that there won’t be enough kids that show up. I want this to be a perfect day for her. I think I should start praying now for good weather and a good turnout.

The First Day of Kindergarten

Kindergarten, my baby has started kindergarten.

I had wondered all summer long how I would react to Andrew’s first day of school. Before school started went to meet his teacher, I was fine. We went to the one on one kindergarten evaluation, I still felt fine. Then it came, the actual first day. He was so excited. He got dressed early and could hardly wait to go. I was still fine, actually excited about having a few hours to myself. We got in the car. I started driving toward the school. Then I saw the huge school bus with a handful of tiny little heads. They were barely able to see out the window and that is when it hit me. The tears came; there was nothing I could do to hold them in. He is still so little, and yet so excited to be testing his wings.

I couldn’t help it. I passed judgment on those moms that put their child on the bus for the first day of school. How could they not be there to make sure their child knew where to go? When I got to Grovecrest I was humbled. Those moms are brilliant. They put their child on the bus, and then raced to school in their car so that they could get pictures of their kids arriving at the school and getting off the bus. Duh! Why didn’t anyone tell me?

Once we got to the school Andrew headed right to the line. He was done with pictures and pretty much done with mom and dad. He did give me a big huge courtesy hug and some kisses before they headed into the school.

I went back when school was out to make sure that he knew where to look for Emma and which bus to get on. When he saw me he came running, he was so excited to see me! He still loved and needed his mommy! He met up with Emma and they gave each other the biggest hug ever. It was so cute. They really do love each other. They both got on the bus. I raced home and met them at the corner when they got off of the bus. It was a great day.

My Latest Crafting Obsession

Over the long weekend I finished my second quilt. It is one I will leave out as a decoration for Autumn/Halloween. This one went faster because I used 9.5 inch squares instead of 6 inch. I would guess it is about the size of a full sized bed. It still has a lot of the strings on it. I need to wash it at least once more. It was a lot of fun but I really rushed to get it done. My shoulders ache from the cutting and clipping. I think the next one will take me more than three days.

Emma wants me to make her one, since the first one (the pink and green one) that she thought was for her turned out so small. We got the butterflies and hot pink fabric for her. She practiced sewing this weekend and is trying to decide if she wants to make it all by herself!
I have decided to wait on the kids clothes quilt. I want to make a girl one and a boy one, so they match a little better. I don’t think I have enough stuff yet to do them as large as I would like. I will just have to be patient.

I love the idea of a sturdy denim picnic blanket so I chose some Americana fabric to use with the denim that we have. I want to make it with the blue stars, deep red (it shows up pinkish in the photo, it isn’t. It is more of a burgundy) and denim on top with solid denim on the back. I am excited to get started, but it might be a little while before I finish it. It will not be on display and picnic season is coming to a close soon.