The actual anniversary of the day she was born is not until Monday. But I planned her party five days early in the hope that more people would not be out of town for the weekend. Summer birthdays are tricky because the usual schedules do not apply, and it's harder to hand out invitations when the guests won't be seeing each other regularly at school.
We delivered invitations last week that were covered in sparkly stars, and heralded the upcoming festivities. Right off the bat two of the girls' moms said they would be away this week and couldn't make it. Oh no! So I invited one more girl from Caylie's class, and hoped the rest would be able to attend.
We set up tables in the park, and laid out some snacks. The guests all arrived (most of them brought siblings), and even one family who we hadn't invited but came to celebrate with us anyway. First the kids decorated home-made jet packs with stickers - some of the siblings had to share jet packs because there were more kids than I had planned! Then they zoomed around with jet power to catch the coloured bubbles Kent blew for them.
Once we'd had enough of the bubbles, they sat down at the table again to decorate cookies. I had made sugar cookies in the shapes of rockets, stars, and moons and I set out lots of icing, candies and sprinkles for them to adorn them. This was a popular activity and they kept at it quite a while. When the first child was done his cookies, I led him over to my "moon rock" station where he took a moon rock (a ball of baking soda with a small toy hidden inside), and dropped it into a jar of vinegar. Then we watched the fizzling, bubbling jar until the toy floated up to the top, and he fished it out with the tongs.
When everyone had had a turn fizzling a moon rock, we uncovered the food and had snack time. Then I turned them loose on the water park and the parents had a breather for a few minutes while they ran around. At this point some of the kids had to leave soon, so I rounded them up and they sat down for cake. I had made a cake with different coloured cake balls around a yellow sun, and the kids had fun ordering what planet they'd like to eat.
As usual, we had specified for the guests not to bring gifts, but that we were collecting donations for the Penticton Food Bank. The guests brought lots of donations, and Caylie will proudly deliver them to the Food Bank this afternoon.
My youngest child proclaimed her party a success, and is satisfied with this eagerly awaited event. Hooray!
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