Party planning mom.....

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all were safe while having fun.

Parties are something I usually do not do all that well at.  Going to them?  Sure, I can whoop it up with the best of them.  Planning a party?  Well, I have great ideas, but no capital to back up my plans.  Running a party?  HA!  That is where I seem to lack talent.  I like to let parties go as they may.  I offer entertainment by either having people watch my clumsy nature or I will have other things around.  I am not one to grab the attention and be the center of it.  I like to call myself the one that makes things happen without doing all that much.  People entertain themselves quite easily, so when I throw a gathering, I make sure that I have a good mix of people that are capable of entertaining themselves.

As DD is getting to be a year older in less than a week, I agreed to letting her have a sleepover party.  As I look back on agreeing to this, I am currently wondering if I was on any medications when I agreed.  Oh my goodness!  What was I thinking??  I do not hang out with DD's friends, I really have no clue what stage or phase they are all in to figure how to make her birthday "one for the books".  You see, DD's friends have vivid imaginations with parents that do not have financial limitations.  A few of these birthday parties that DD has attended ranged from "an evening of skating", to bowling parties, to overnight stays at a hotel that has a pool.  While, I have tried to make her previous birthday parties fun, I have used various outlets of entertainment....  Chuck E Cheese was the first of many planned events when she was young.  I figured it went well, but you can tell that parties like that are lame.  I ventured into sport themed parties through the park district.  It offered entertainment, but with such a vast number of different personalities, I did not see it go as smoothly as it should.  I even had a few parties thrown at DD's Taekwondo school.  They were okay, but there comes a time when you just need to suck it up and plan something that surrounds what kids her age like to do.  Apparently, the big thing is sleepover parties.  Okay, I know that the concept is to not really sleep, but being a woman of my age... these kids are gonna sleep if it kills me.

DH agreed to let DD have a sleepover on her birthday weekend.  I still have not figured what is going through DH's head after he agreed to having a bunch of girls sleeping over.  I do not think he really thought this through, but probably figured that I can pull a rabbit out of my hat and make this fun for them and completely controlled so DH has to do nothing.  DD is his world and is willing to give her anything she wants.  No, not like the pushover like Veruca Salt's daddy was in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but he is quite accommodating to DD's demands.... within reason.  I fear that I will be saying "suck it up and deal" to DH at least a half dozen times over the course of next weekend.  Being non-confrontational that I tend to be, I will need to muster the courage to do so anyway.

As I printed up the invites, set the limited number to 4 friends since my house is really not all that big to accommodate more than that, and already have some activities in line.  I am silently suffering the little details of timing.  I am going to be the chauffeur, the maid, the cook and the party planner through all of this.  I am just not sure that I can pull this party off without a hitch.  I have no clue if these kids are going to be here on time, if there is any special dietary request that I can accommodate for, and I really hate scheduling the time limits for each event.  Let me give you a little 4-1-1 on what I have planned so far....

Kids arrive at 5pm, dinner is served by 5:15pm (which consists of a HUGE sandwich that will look like a 3-tier cake, chips and drinks), a mini makeover event will start to commence by 6pm (thus offering 1 hour of primping and pampering with makeup, hair accessories and nail polish), then round up the troops and head to the local roller rink for some skating for 2 hours, and head back home to a cupcake decorating event, popcorn and a movie from Netflix.  Hopefully, I can pull all of this off before 10pm because I know that at least 1 kid will have to be driven home because her parents do not let their kids sleep over at anyone's house. Chances are, by 10pm, they should be worn out enough to consider sleeping because DH will be spent.  Come the following morning, I am offering breakfast and then they are all to go to their respective homes.  After that, I get to muster up the energy to deal with a sleep deprived daughter, a slightly cranky husband (because I know that there will not be much sleeping going on), to get the grocery shopping done for the week and maybe... just maybe after that... I can crash on the couch because I will be spent by then.  I know that we will be missing church, but it is a price we are paying to have a sleepover and try to rest up for yet another week of work/school.

After thinking so much about what they are going to be doing, I forgot to figure out how to decorate for this event.  My goodness!  Being a preteen is no picnic because there is really no "theme" to this party.  YIKES!  I need to get some inspiration really quick if this party is worthy of DD's approval.....  No wonder I have difficulties making parties.....