Blue Cupcakes and First Slumber Party

Last week we celebrated Callie's birthday a few different ways. One of these was the usual sending of the birthday cupcakes to her class at school. Callie had requested chocolate cupcakes with blue icing and green sugar sprinkles and a cherry on top. So I obliged, using an entire tube of blue gel food coloring in the vanilla icing to achieve the desired effect.

As I pulled up to the school to pick up Callie and Caleb that afternoon, Callie's teacher was standing with them to return my cupcake carrier to me . . . and to tell me what happened. She had decided to let Callie pass out her cupcakes to her classmates, which Callie was happy to do. However, as she carried one of the trays of a dozen blue cupcakes, Callie tripped on someone's bookbag and fell to the floor, landing right in the cupcakes. Now, I saw the results on her white uniform shirt (now looking somewhat tie-dyed), but I wish I could have seen her face, too, which was apparently equally blue and creamy!

Oh my goodness. I wish I could have seen it. Since I didn't, though, I was full of questions for Callie. I made sure to ask her if she was hurt or if she was embarrassed or cried before my hard-to-contain laughter was released. She did say that she had to blink back a few tears, which was sad. But her face told me that somehow she knew it was really funny. So we got to laughing about it, and she decided that she wanted to keep the shirt on for the rest of the day, because it was such a great story. I assured her that this was the type thing that they do on purpose on TV and in the movies to get people to laugh! It was also a good time to talk about how even when it's hard (I know it is for me!!!), it's important to be able to laugh at ourselves. Granted, I wasn't the one who fell into the cupcakes in front of my entire class, but this story is STILL making me laugh!

Then last weekend, Callie hosted her first slumber party, and I have to say it was lots of fun! She invited four little girls to our house for an "Under the Sea" themed party. As we prepared for the girls' arrival, we were all busy trying to get the house cleaned up, when I heard this announcement from Callie: "Next year I want a surprise party!" I can't say I blame her; I hate cleaning, too.

Callie had created the invitations herself the previous week. They were incredibly detailed, including instructions to bring whatever sleeping supplies (such as breathing machines--a.k.a. humidifiers for stuffy noses) they might need and to warn us of any allergies they had. The girl is cautious! When she asked me if she should write on the invitations that meals would be included, I told her that that was most likely understood.

Around 5:30 p.m., the girls began arriving at our house. We started the evening with a dinner designed by Callie--tacos, chips and Ro-tel dip, and Caesar salad. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Then the squealing girls set off to playing and never took a break, except for Callie to open her gifts. They played everything from Hide and Seek to restaurant to pajama fashion show (They made me judge.) to talent show to dance freeze tag to Cadoo to who knows what else. At one point while they were in the living room, I heard Callie announce, "We're sleeping on the floor in here. And I must warn you--sometimes we have roaches!" Wonderful. And then Katie broke out into "La Cocha-ROACH-a." Even better.

The girls each received a new pillow case and spent time carefully coloring, decorating, and signing them. I was honored that one of the girls asked me to sign hers. Later in the evening we each built our own ice cream sundaes. The most desired ingredients were mint chocolate chip ice cream and cordial cherries. Yummy!

Since this was Callie's party, Kevin decided to take Caleb and Katie out of the house for a few hours, so they went to Barnes & Noble. While Katie was not very understanding of this at first, she ended up having a great time looking at books and drinking hot chocolate with her Daddy and brother. Caleb apparently DOWNED his hot chocolate, but Kevin said that Katie sipped hers slowly. "This is how Mommy drinks her coffee," was Katie's explanation.

For the most part, I stayed out of the girls' way, although I remained within earshot. I perched at the kitchen table with the laptop and gave frequent status updates on Facebook, which some people found humorous. At 11:00 the girls were still very, very wired and not looking like sleep was coming anytime soon. So I announced that at 11:30, the sleeping bags would be laid out on the living room floor, and The Little Mermaid would begin playing on the TV. While two of the girls fell asleep pretty quickly after 11:30, my daughter and two other girls were still awake at 1:00 when the movie ended! I don't think they lasted much longer, though.

The next morning, Kevin got up and made chocolate chip pancakes for our guests, and they seemed to enjoy them. One girl asked if she could stay with us for a week! (We said no.) After breakfast they all got dressed and went outside to jump on the trampoline. I don't see how they did this right after eating chocolate chip pancakes, but they did. Then one-by-one the tired girls went back to their own homes, and the Partridges took the afternoon to rest.

A very successful first slumber party, in my opinion.