It seemed like a good idea at the time. Since we were celebrating Reina’s birthday on Saturday, and since we host a Baha’i-inspired, virtues-based children’s class on Saturday mornings, we decided it would be best to have two birthday parties for Reina; one right after class and one a couple of hours later for the rest of her friends. But after a busy week of work, event planning, doctor visits (13 week check for Savvy and some leg pains for Reina), and even more work, Savvy and I arrived at Friday night with a home in disarray, nothing prepared for the party, and my coming down with a cold. It seemed this year’s birthday theme would be minimalism.
Somehow, I rallied myself to clean the house before collapsing into bed while Savvy, despite being equally tired, labored into the night baking cakes for an army of hungry kids. Suffice it to say she went to bed way too late and will never do that again whilst pregnant with twins.
By morning, I had only strung two rows of kitten streamers that we purchased online (see post here). All the balloons and ribbons remained in the box when the first guests arrived. As these kids come every week for children’s class, they didn’t complain about the lack of décor and were happy to have a reason to eat cake and other unhealthy snacks like carrot sticks. As the appointed time for them to leave came and went (the mom’s usually shuttle them away for lunch by noon), I began to see a problem with our planning as the next bunch was scheduled to arrive at 2.00 and by 1.00 we still had guests, a messy dining room and kitchen, and had not eaten lunch.
As the last child reluctantly shuffled off, I began to hang more decorations only to hear the doorbell ring 20 minutes early. Drats! Fortunately, our little guest’s mom was more than happy to help out and even cut out a happy birthday banner using origami paper to create the letters. By the time the next guest arrived, we had finished placing the balloons, cleaned up the kitchen, and wiped up the spills on the floor.
Four hours later, when most of the party revelers left, the floor was a quagmire of spilled juice, non-descript blobs, and crumbs, toys were bestrewn throughout the home, and more than a few kids and parents were frazzled. Dinner by delivery followed before the last friends left and Reina wearily collapsed into bed exclaiming it the best birthday ever. As I surveyed the damage only one thought crossed my own sleepy mind, “Well done! Now where’s the mop?”
Photo by Christopher Lay.