Party in the house!

Party prep continued...

Never a dull moment. I am so glad that I decided to get goody bags ready last night and take a shower and blow dry my hair. There was no way any of that was happening today. I almost went with getting fruit myself to cut up and making a cake, but I changed my mind and got everything from Costco. What a stress-saver...well some of the stress anyway. I got to bed after midnight last night and was anticipating the kids getting up at their usual 6:30, but instead it was 8 a.m., which meant I was an hour and half behind with 3 hours to go until party time! On the agenda, tidy up the house, get myself and Ava dressed (she would be going out with me), get the pool set up in the backyard and start the hose, then get to Party City to pick up the balloons and Costco to get the sandwiches. All this in a car with no A/C and taking the time to buckle and seatbelt in a toddler in a 2-door. I had a few wardrobe changes throughout the day due to dirt, water and sweat. Lance was a huge help cleaning the kitchen and taking Jenna and Jared out.

Ava and I got home at 10:40! Some shout-outs to Dawn, Angela and Lana who helped me get things together so I didn't lose my mind running late ;) It was about 11:45 when Lance called me because Jenna and Jared were getting cranky and wanted to come home, so I told him to come in through the front door, I had the blinds open a little bit so I could see them pull up, and I was a nervous wreck. (1) I was hoping Jenna wouldn't have some kind of freak out meltdown that you see on America's Funniest Home Videos, and (2) all the planning and whether it's a success are not will be over in 1 minute. It was a very long minute waiting for them to get out of the car and for Jenna to open the front door. But I had my camera ready, the living room was full of friends, in she came, we yelled surprise, and she paused and backed away slowly. It took a couple seconds and someone yelling Happy Birthday for it to click, and then the pure joy of the moment took over. It was perfect. Here's the moment:

She instinctively took her shoes off before joining everyone, then took her time going around the room to greet her friends, and when she got over to where I was she gave me a hug. After a few minutes I thought serving lunch would be a good idea, so I asked Jenna if she was ready to eat. Her response of course, "No, I want to play!" Well...ok. After taking our time to eat, we had a mad house getting kids changed and lotioned up to go play in the water outside. Once they were out there they had a blast, in spite of water getting dumped on each other's heads and mud slinging (literally). We did the cake outside and came in for presents. Just when I thought we were done Jenna reminded me, "No mommy we need to do the pinata!!" Right you are. There's something about a bunch of kids in an enclosed space scrambling for candy on the floor that makes me just laugh out loud. As the party was winding down and everyone was leaving Jenna was anxiously waiting to break out her new toys. At first I was having her wait while we re-grouped to start cleaning up, but instead I set her up on our bed with a couple of her new things while the babies napped.

It's 8 o'clock, it's been non-stop since I got up, my feet hurt, my head is greasy from sweating so much, there are still dishes on the counter and sink, I have a 2 year old who got a late nap and is still awake in her crib, but the rest of the house is clean, the kids are bathed and I have one 5 year old who is passed out after an unexpectedly exciting day to celebrate HER. Priceless.