Oops, I Did it Again!

It was going to be small this year. Ten kids at the most, fifteen if I was feeling ambitious! I said that after last years party if you'll remember back a year.

I don't know how it happens. Each year the party gets bigger rather than smaller.

I always realize this after it's too late.

I started to realize it was growing by leaps and bounds after recruiting my mom and sister-in-law to help decorate 35 clown ice cream cones.

Or was it after making and sending out 35 invitations!
I knew for sure it had grown when the guests started arriving, quickly filling every square inch of my backyard!

And when the passage-way through the back patio required a detour due to the large amount of birthday gifts, I knew the party had grown!!!

And when the living room began to look like this,

I nearly hyperventhilated!

I didn't have nearly enough bins to house all of the gifts. And some of the gifts were so large, a bin wouldn't be sufficient!

The gift stress wasn't even close to the stress that the Taco Man put me through! The man who was going to feed my guests and arrive at my house at 3:30 pm so my guests could start eating at 4:30pm...yah...that Taco Man....well he arrived over an hour late! Which delayed eating time from 4:30pm to after 5:15pm.

Does he not know that doing that to a mother who is plagued with a Type-A, In Control personality ranks right up there with having your fingernails removed one-by-one with a pair of pliers?

Oh yah...That's exactly how badly it hurt!

It was nothing that our Guest of Honor couldn't fix. Penelope the Clown came in and saved the day. Like a Night in Shining Armor trotting in on his horse, she swooped in in her mini-van and delighted the children with her magnificent face painting! The kids could have cared less that their tummies were growling!!!

Chaos, clutter, and confusion didn't hold anyone back from having a good time! Even I was still smiling at the end! A bit exhausted, but still smiling!

It's a really great thing that this whole birthday thing only happens once a year. It gives me a whole 365 days to recoup and decide to do it again the following year!