Lyla's Birthday

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We had a small gathering of family and Lyla's close buds this weekend at the house. We were originally just going to Build a Bear workshop, and having a cake, but on Tuesday the whole thing turned "Jen" on me. I was suddenly ordering Andy Nelson's BBQ, renting chairs and tablecloths, and hiring a face painter. All in all, I think it went just fine, but I was stressing because I had a work site going live, and was juggling checking emails on my Blackberry with keeping the day's events on schedule. Luckily, Lyla went down for a nap, which I never thought would happen, but that did result in us having to push the party 30 minutes, as well as us having to wake her from a deep sleep to rush her over there. I swear, any time there is any gathering of my family, Lyla either has not had a nap, or we've woken her up from one and she is cranky. The poor kid. She is so good, and yet, every time we get everyone together, she's Les Mis.

In the hour she slept, I ran to Party City to pick up the four dozen balloons needed to fill the backyard. I won't go too in-depth about the kind of derelicts that work at PC, but let's just say they don't go out of their way or maybe even know how to problem solve how to fit 48 loose balloons into someone's car without the manager present (for the record the manager saved everything and even helped me at the car). The one girl who didn't even know what I was talking about when I asked her if they could be tied together, was also talking about getting a full scholarship to some private college in Maryland. Her sentence went like this, "I is going there if I want to, cuz they is givin' me a full scholarship." I thought to myself, she must have had to undergo some type of interview to be awarded a full scholarship, and one would think that grammar of some sort would be a requisite for getting the type of grades that would warrant a scholarship right? I don't think she was going on an athletic scholarship either. Well, maybe she was, but she didn't look like an athlete of any kind. She looked like she'd been smoking Marlboro Reds since she was 12, and dying her hair bleach blond since even earlier, because her bangs were burned away, and the rest was sprayed up in a flower shape in the front. Her accent was half Dundalk, half fly girl. So, she had me all intrigued with what her story was, and how she came to get this mysterious free ride. I may need to investigate that further and report back.

Back to the balloons...I pictured the same set-up as the scene in the Sex and the City movie where Miranda and Carrie get in the fight about Miranda telling Big they were crazy to get married. The only stitch to this is that our backyard is covered only by a pergola, and I didn't take into account the balloons ability to fly away from under it. So, instead we had to tie them all to it, which resulted in it looking like every other kid's birthday party. Bah to me.

I then, frantically cut hydrangeas from all of our Gilligan's Island-sized bushes (remember that episode where they grew that crazy radioactive fruit that was huge, and allowed them read minds?). I filled glasses and vases with them as centerpieces which I was pretty happy with since I had no plan for the tables. Needless to say, they were completely wilted by the time we returned to the house. Hydrangeas may be the worst flowers (aside from gardenias) to stand up to the sun and heat. Nice job again Jenny.

I also re-pinned the letters I made from drawing paper on our fence that spelled Lyla. I wanted the kids to be able to write all over it. I did it the night before at 11:30 p.m., but when we woke, all the letters were down but the A. Push pins aren't so easy to put into the fence, so I was leaning with all my might to get each one into the boards. So far, not so good, but I'm getting things done.

After sweating to the oldies profusely in the 90+ degree sun, it was time to dress Miss Lyla, and whisk her off to the mall. The dress she wore was just lovely, I have to say. See inset of it in better view. If anyone questions the price of J. Crew's crew cuts line for kids, don't. It's worth every penny!

So, Lyla was in a surprisingly pleasant mood the whole way. I was happy and calm.

The moment we got to Build a Bear at 4:00 on the dot (we were the last ones there of course), she was not feelin' it.

The girl running the show was as loud as she could possibly be. I understand she needs to be heard, but there were only six kids, everyone was right there, and there was virtually no one else in the place. Lyla just hates loud. She really does. Except when she is being loud, then she's super ok with it. Well, the yeller starts wailing about what her name is, and tried to stick a sticker on her. Lyla wanted nothing to do with it. Why would any kid take a sticker from someone who is clearly yelling at him or her?

More intros ensue, and some hopping and such. Lyla takes to it, and does it. It's only when the yeller puts her on the spot does she start cranking. So, she's hot and cold about the whole thing, and really wants nothing to do with the staying together part. She finally meanders back over, and they have to do all this stuff with the hearts to put inside the bear. Kiss it, rub it all over, and then rub it on the person next to you's head. She gets to rub hers on Finnegan, which was great, and there is a picture above of them doing it which is precious. If these two end up falling in love, I'm so fine with it. What beautiful babies will result.

Anyway, she gets a dog and some dress, and a purse which I think cost like $1,000 or something. Everyone else gets their bears with their outfits, hair pieces, sunglasses, whatev, and we're donezo. The whole thing takes about 45 minutes, and I'm pretty happy when it's wrapped because I feel much better knowing Lyla will be good at home, which she was. I know I'm a Mom and all that crap, and I should expect crankiness and some "No's" in public, but I get very stressed when Lyla is cranky in any way shape or form in public. I just want to flee. I'm a flighter, not a fighter. I won't mention her laying down in the parking lot on the way to the car. Luckily, Leslie saved the day by proposing Lyla hold Finn's hand on the way to the car. Again, my solutions for things never work. Once, we took her to Nordtrom at bed time, when she was going through a two-week tantrum stage, and boy did she unleash. She was screaming bloody murder everywhere and every single person was staring at us. It was simply awful. Then, she calmed down, and was absolutely fine asking to try on hats. Go figure.

We got back to the house, and the rest of the day goes pretty well. The kids hung out most of the time in our 200 degree basement with rotating adults down there. I was feeding them BBQ, M&Ms, and limeade at a rapid rate to keep them occupied. Sprinkled some glow sticks, the face painter, and pin the tail on the donkey in, and we were good.

Although, the kids all yelled at each other during Pin the Tail on the Donkey. No one really wanted to lose, and I was bargaining with them all. I paid most of them off in cash to settle the disputes. Money really does solve everything.

Lastly, we tie dyed, which every adult thought I was crazy for doing, but turned out to be one of the favorite things the kids did. My niece showed me all about it, and how to twist the t-shirts. It was awesome. After 20 minutes of pre-washing, 15 minutes of twisting, 15 minutes of dyeing, 6-8 hours of setting, a 40 minute hot wash to set the dye, and a 60 minute dry they were done! Voila, everyone had a shirt. I should post a pic, because they really did come out great. I highly recommend it. I got the kit for $6.99 at Michael's and just bought every kid a tee at Target.

So, a cool $1,000 later, our smaller than last year's 2nd birthday party for Lyla turned out to be a cinch, and just great.