Birthdays

Alberto has come and gone leaving 3.5 inches of much needed rain. Retention ponds actually have some water in them, and lawns are looking greener. We hope the rain continues. It looks like Raliegh, NC got a bigger wallop of rain than we did. The sun has returned and hopefully daily afternoon thunderstorms will begin agian.

As The Singer approaches 16, I'm trying to remain sane. Early symptoms of menopause mixed with raging hormones of teenage girls results in great frustrations. To maintain a positive connection, I'm working on her 16th birthday party. As per her request, she had no real imput into it. She wanted to be surprised. She gave me the invite list and I am doing the rest. The party is this Saturday. I've written about some of this before but I'm guess, I'm a little excited. I like doing this kind of thing. Generally, it is on a much smaller scale and less "store bought" paraphenalia, but 16 is a big celebration. [Past birthdays have included the sleuth theme with homemade code books and clues leading to a treasure, roller skating theme, with roller skate cake, Little Mermaid theme with sand and sea shell art, almost-sleepover party for younger ones where they put on their PJs, get out their sleeping bags and do all the giggling and hair combing and stuff but parents take them home at 10PM.] I told her a little about the party early this week because it was too hard to keep it all secret since it's summer and she's home so much. 14 girls are meeting at the ice skating rink, for two hours of fun in a nice cold place during the summer in Florida. Then it's back to our house for some fun. We have Tinkerbell decorations, streamers, plates, a tiara for the birthday girl, and a Tinkerbell pinata. As part of the refreshments we have homemade chocolate cups (made with candy-making chocolate and they're the size of mini-muffins) filled with chocolate mousse topped with purple and pink M&Ms. (That's what we did today.) The cake is will be a pink castle cake (pictures in later posts) with Tinkerbell "flying" in front. The prizes are fairy necklaces complete with tiny vials of fairy dust and Tinkerbell playing cards. (Much of this is acquired at Claires, the rest at Wal-Mart). The craft of the evening is "stained glass" Tinkerbells (the plastics outlines are at Walmart, you pick the colors and paint with the 'stained glass' paint). This is definitely a "farewell to childhood" more than a "hello adulthood" party but it is very much her. It's not what many of her friends would have picked for themselves but they will definitely 'get into the spirit' and help her celebrate. I really like most of her friends.
Before all these festivities, I am taking her and her best friend to Merle Norman for a make-over and tomorrow we're putting highlights into her hair (the first time I've agreed to any kind of hair dying...trying to pick my battles).

Tomorrow will include baking cakes and house-cleaning. Then I have to decide what I will draw on her Birthday Tablecloth. Before the Singer's first birthday, I read about this in Parents Magazine. You take a white linen tablecloth and write the child's name on it with fabric paint. Then each year people who help your child celebrate their birthday sign the cloth with fabric paint. I try to draw a little symbol/picture to represent each year and have people sign under the picture. She has 15 years signed. Each year when we get the tablecloth out there is great fun remembering past birthdays...like the year cousin Lauren's hands and face turned blue from the icing from the Cookie Monster cake (Megan was 2 so Lauren was just over 3) or the year she celebrated her birthday at Beathany Beach with grandparents and cousins (Lauren was in this memory, too). Then we remember the Singer and I travelling to Lauren's 7th birthday from Florida to Virginia and arriving in a snowstorm. It's great to walk down memory lane. [Helps overcome all the hormone imbalances].