Melinda's 7th Birthday

Well, you should know by now to expect recaps of epic length. I'm sure I won't disappoint you in that regard today!

Melinda, my little girl, is 7 years old. I can hardly believe it. I'm certain that I wasn't able to imagine her being this old, this developed, this big, when she was just a brand new little baby in my arms-- when I was first learning and figuring out what being a mom is like. I've still got so much more learning and figuring out to do!! I just hope she stops growing up so fast. The years are just flying by!

This time last year, we were up to our necks in boxes, packing our apartment to get ready to move to Colorado. I didn't have the time, energy, or means to throw her a traditional party. So we had an "open house", invited all her friends, and some of mine, to come celebrate whenever they wanted, have some cake, ice cream, snacks, and say goodbye while they were here. Because in less than 2 weeks, we were heading out, and we wouldn't be able to see them again. Having an open house was a lot of fun. But I sort of felt like it was a cop-out that year, because we didn't have any games, theme, yadda yadda. So I think I went a little over-board this year, trying to make up for it. And the fact that Melinda hadn't really had a birthday party between her first party at age three, and the open house party at age six.

At first, I said that I would let her invite 10 people, which I was only going to allow because I felt fairly certain that not every one of those 10 would be able to come. But then, she mentioned her party to a couple of her first grade classmates that she hadn't invited, and of course, they wanted to come. So we upped it to 12. Then she mentioned it to one of her favorite girls from church, and of course, she wanted to come, too! So, 13 it was. In the end, 10 RSVP'd that they would come. And one mother caught me the day before the party and asked if her daughter could still come, although they had forgotten to RSVP. After some hemming and hawing, I did my best to politely say no. I had already been going nearly off-my-rocker crazy for the last few days, trying to get everything ready for all the guests who would be coming. I couldn't see a realistic way to add yet one more guest to the tally, and try to make sure she was included in everything. In the end, that was a very good decision, though I hope her feelings weren't hurt. (But hey, that's why I did my darndest to send out invitations a good 2 weeks beforehand, after all!!)

Melinda decided that she wanted a horse party. I didn't have a ton of ideas for horse-themed stuff, so I decided we'd include a lunch in her party, and take up some extra time while introducing her friends to her favorite meal. I liked it. In the end, this was our schedule:

10:30am, horse craft
10:50am, follow-the-leader with horses from craft
11:00am, pin the tail on the horse
11:15am, pop-the-balloon
11:30am, Lunch, followed by cake & ice cream
12:00pm, Piñata
12:15pm, presents
12:30pm, guest go home

You wouldn't think, looking at that list, that there was terribly much to prepare. But, as I was trying to save as much money as possible, I did as much home-made as I could. We did buy the piñata-- I didn't think I'd be able to pull off a horse-shaped one on my own! But pretty much everything else, I made.

For the horse craft, I thought we would make simple Hobby Horses. So, we bought 10 dowels (one guest was going to be late, and Jacob and Alex could survive with sticks from the yard). We traced and cut 25 horse heads out of poster board. Actually, I only drew the original horse head. Jesse, bless his heart, traced all the rest (including meticulously finding a way to fit 5 heads on one posterboard), and cut them all out by hand. Then I took rectangles of fleece, folded them in half, sewed a line down the folded edge to anchor them closed, and cut strips (like grass) to make manes. At the party, each of the kids would be able to color their own pair of horse heads, which would be sandwiched on top of a mane of their choice, and secured to a dowel. We also glued googley-eyes on the horses. Although, in the chaos of 13 kids, a few who took too long/arrived too late probably never got their eyes glued on, as we scurried them along to the next thing on the schedule. Oh, well. We tried.

This is a picture of the decorations before everyone arrived:

The table all set up for the hobby horse craft, poster-board heads all lined up around the table. Yup, it was a squeeze, with so many kids coming!

Treat bags and balloons set out on the table. They have a horse printed under their names, of course. I attempted to print directly onto the bags, but my printer protested and jammed up the process. So I was left to print on paper and cut-and-paste. Yay.

Before the party started, Aunt Breanne sat down with the kids and read them one of Grandma's books. Melinda's wearing a simple crown I made for her with fun, glitter-covered craft foam.

Before I go on further, I want to tell you what I came up with to put in the guests' take-home bags. I had gotten a few things from Oriental Trading at the same time I ordered the horse-themed plates/cups/napkins, but I didn't feel like it would be enough. (While I hate the way everyone expects elaborate gift bags when they attend a party these days, I can't seem to gain the courage to just ignore the expectation and do a party the way I grew up!) I asked my mother-in-law Nedra if she had a horse pattern I could use to sew up a small stuffed horse to put in the bags. I didn't think it would be too much work, and I would have shrunk down the pattern a bit to get something nice and small. But she came up with an even better idea: Just make horse finger puppets! And I'm so glad she did come up with that. As it was, I spent a solid 3 hours one night simply cutting out pieces of fleece for the finger puppets, and from 9am-4pm the next day sewing them all up. Can you imagine how long actual stuffed horses would have taken me?? Granted, I decided to do two finger puppets per guest, as one just seemed sort of lonely... but still. Finger puppets are so simple compared to full-blown 3D horses.

I made each finger puppet different. No two had the same fleece + mane combination. It was sort of fun. But mostly tedious. And unfortunately, I didn't have the energy to sew a few up for my own kids. I've promise them that they'll get some eventually. It might be Christmas before I make it happen, but they'll get some. All the materials I used for these horse puppets were things I already had on hand. Yay for basically free!

Melinda models her 10 favorite finger puppets.

She made them nuzzle each other. Awww.

The finger puppet on the left is Melinda's favorite. She likes the "aquamarine" horses combined with the pink manes the most.

Alex really liked them, too! :)

All 20 horses lined up for display. Hard to believe it took me so long to make them. The pile felt much bigger when I was holding it.

So, back on track, the Hobby Horse craft seemed like a general hit. Except for people coming in late and not having enough time to color a horse to their own expectations. I had the whole idea planned to do a big follow-the-leader game with Melinda in the lead, all of them riding their horses. But we ran out of time. The ones who finished earliest headed out to play in Grandma's backyard, running around, or doing sidewalk chalk on the tennis court, while the rest finished up inside. And while I'm thinking of outside, we were so blessed to have a gorgeous day. In Colorado, October 16th could well be a miserable, snowy, cold day. But we got nothing but sunshine and warmth. It was perfect. (And made me think of the day I went into labor with her, when it was warm enough in Maryland to go for a walk without worrying about a jacket!)

So after they were finally all finished with their craft, we gathered them up to play pin the tail on the horse. I drew and colored the horse poster myself. (Side note: Melinda saw it the morning after it was finished, and proclaimed me the best horse-drawer she's ever known. Aww!) It was going great, right up until the point of my brown Sharpee marker running out of ink. I scrounged around and found another marker that was nearly the same color, which worked out okay (though disappointed me in my own hopes/standards for things like that). The night before the party, I made poster-board tails. I was going to color each of them as part of my preparation, but ultimately decided to let Melinda do that part in the morning before the party. I'm happy for that decision- not only was I already up until 11:45pm (completely exhausted and out of steam since about 8:30) doing last-minute prep, but she colored them differently than I would have, and was thoughtful about what colors each of her guests liked. They all "ooh'ed" and "ahh'ed" over their different horse tails, saying they were perfect and that they loved them. And the actual game was fun for them, too! They laughed so hard when someone put a tail in the wrong spot. By the time we got to the last several people, attention spans were running thin, though. 7 kids would have been much better than 13. Lesson learned for next time: There is much validity in the idea of only inviting as many kids as the age you're celebrating.

A blindfolded Melinda tries to find the horse poster so she can place her tail.

Close! And yet so far away...

Jacob was one of the last kids to "pin" his tail on the poster. You can see that there were plenty of silly tail placements for the kids to laugh at. :)

After our pinning-the-tails game was done, we gathered on the back lawn to play an old Wilcox-family favorite (at least, in my memory it was!): Pop the Balloon. We had 20-some-odd balloons blown up and tied off, with a rolled-up piece of paper tucked inside them. The kids had to pop the balloon (which was generally easy, with large balloons on blades of grass), read the paper that had been inside, and follow the instructions. We had some pretty basic things, like tell a funny joke, spin around, do jumping jacks, tickle your neighbor, etc. But they loved popping the balloons (and can you imagine a 6/7 year old not enjoying that?). And, I have to take a moment to brag about Jacob. When it was his turn to pop a balloon, he picked up his paper to read it. I thought he would need help, but he took just a couple seconds to process it, and then read easily: Do 10 Jumping Jacks. Some of the first graders there couldn't read easier instructions than that without help, and Jacob had no trouble at all. What a smarty-pants!

Beanie (in pink) sits on a balloon and pops it. Ooh, look! You can see one of the hobby horses in this picture!

After that game was cleaned up, everyone headed inside for lunch. We made Melinda's favorite- what she calls "Mackadacky" (but is actually Cheeseburger Macaroni) - that morning, and kept it warmed in the crock pot until lunch time. We also served grapes and cantaloupe. And I was going to serve carrot sticks and ranch dip as well, but forgot it at home. D'oh! Actually, we forgot the ice cream, too. Jesse ran home to get that, but by the time I remembered the carrot sticks, it was really too late to do anything about it. Most of the kids seemed to enjoy their food, but a couple didn't even try it, and a couple others took a few bites and decided they didn't like it. I hope the parents weren't utterly confused about why some of their kids might be hungry so soon after the party!

A few of Melinda's guests at the table eating lunch.

After lunch, we were still waiting for Jesse to get back with the ice cream. I didn't want to let them all back outside (because then we'd have to wait for 13 kids to wash their hands in 2 bathrooms before we could eat again), so we played a few quick rounds of "Penny Penny, Who Has The Penny". It was blissfully quiet at that point. All those kids were really loud!!! It was a bit overwhelming. Especially when they were inside. But trying to pay close attention to see who was given a penny among the whole group of them, well... that kept them calm for a short while. Poor Jacob... he's a slow eater. When everyone decided they were done, excused themselves from the table, and we started the Penny game, Jacob was in melt-down mode because he was left alone at the table. Just a big ol' heap of tears. Thank goodness Aunt Rachel was there to help calm him down. I didn't even realize he was having trouble for a good long while.

Once Jesse got back, we all headed back into the dining room for cake and ice cream. And okay, so I let Melinda have a choice for cake: Either a typical round cake that I would decorate with a horse of some sort, or a fancy cupcake from the Hello, Cupcake book that I got for Christmas last year. She picked the cupcakes. I thought it looked like work, but I seriously, seriously underestimated just how much work it would be. I decided, sort of last-minute, that it would be good to make them over at Grandma's house and avoid any issues of transportation. Thus, we went over in the afternoon so I could work on them then, instead of waiting until the evening to make them at home like I had originally planned. I worked on these things from noon until 5:30, with only a break long enough to pick up the kids from school. It was sort of a nightmare!! And the cupcakes were too spongy, and wouldn't hold up some of the candy heads. They were so delicate, too-sweet (not only for me, but plenty of the kids only had a few bites, too), and soooo much work. But, they were cute. Not nearly as cute as the pictures in the book, but they turned out fine. But I think I'll just stick to regular ol' cake next time.

All the horses gathered up. Some of them have some "hay" to munch on. Melinda's choice for herself was the one at the top, the only horse I added a bridle to.

Close-up of the horse cupcakes. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Melinda and a few of her guests enjoying their cupcakes and ice cream.

Alex thought the horses were *hilarious*. He giggled insanely, informing us "I killed the horse's tail! I eat it!", and so on, each time he chomped a new body part.

And finally, after all that eating, the big piñata event! I found this horse piñata online at toysRus. It turned out to be an extremely durable piñata! We started out letting every guest have 2 swings, blindfolded, whether or not they hit. We were remembering our family reunion this summer, where we went youngest to oldest, and Melinda didn't even get a turn! We wanted everyone to have at least one turn. But on the second round, when we went to no-blindfold and still 2 swings, there were plenty of good hits made, but nothing but a few stray pieces of candy flying out of the piñata's opening! So we made it three hits, no special maneuvering from the Piñata Master, Jesse. Then, with still no breakage in sight, and time running short, we hunted down a harder stick. Still no luck. Finally, Jesse took the stick, took one solid swing over his shoulder and directly onto the horse's back. Finally the sucker kicked the bucket, and the mad rush for candy was made. I was mean (aka "fair"), and made them all put the candy in one bucket, and I took it inside to distribute as equally as possible into their take-home bags. About half of the parents had arrived just before this point. Eek! No time!!

Melinda happily takes a swing at the horse Piñata.

They're really getting into it now!! (See the Hobby Horses??)

Still no luck! They're all so full of anticipation!

I didn't get any pictures of Melinda opening presents at the end of her party. It was very chaotic, with 13 kids, the adults who were there helping, and now most of the adults there to pick up their children. And some siblings of the party-goers, too. I barely had the time to scribble down Melinda's gifts so we could get Thank-You notes right. But she seemed thoroughly thrilled with everything she was given, from teeny-tiny horses, to Silly Bandz, to various craft supplies.

And once everyone was gone, (Phew! Breathe a sigh of relief! We survived!!), we let her open a few more gifts from Grandma Wilcox, and from Jesse and myself.

Grandpa really loves to play their traditional "Heavy Heavy Hangover Thy Poor Head" guessing game. He got a little more enthusiastic than usual with this one, threatening quite a vigorous bonk on the head!

Grandma Wilcox sent this lovely umbrella! Melinda loves it. She insisted on using it on a potentially-rainy walk to school this week, even though the promised clouds were nowhere to be seen.

Grandma Wilcox also sent a lovely kid's Timex watch. Melinda was a bit disappointed that it wasn't digital (meaning, she can't tell time with it yet), but it's very pretty and has some good time-learning features. The hour and minute hands are labeled, it glows in the dark with a push of a button, and every 5 minutes are also labeled. Hopefully she'll figure it out soon, so she can wear it as more than a pretty accessory. :)

We told Melinda, when she asked for a new bike several times over the past month or so, that we probably wouldn't be able to get her a new bike until Daddy got a new job. Well, I scoured craigslist, and finally found someone parting with a 20" girls bike, just like we needed. Ready for the surprise?? She had no idea what to expect when we told her there was something special outside....

Okay Melinda, you can come out now!!! (Look at that huge grin!!)

You can definitely tell the bike is used (for instance, the seat has tape covering some cracks), but it's in good working condition, and she loooooves it. And it only cost us $20. Hooray!!

After the party, Melinda did something I've never seen from her before: She acted completely drained. She played with her new things a bit, yes. But after that, she curled up in a ball, got really quiet, and just held still for the longest time. She was exhausted. All that partying! Who would have guessed Melinda would feel as tired as I did??

It was a fun party. Way, way too much work, but fun. I think I definitely made up for years past. But I also think we're going to institute the every-other-year party rule, from now on, too. And make the parties slightly more low-key in the future. ;) But I could tell the kids enjoyed it, too. One boy's mom told me today when she saw me at school that he had *so* much fun that he decided his next birthday will be a Star Wars/Horse theme. LOL!!

And of course, that wasn't the end of birthday festivities, either. As Newson tradition goes, we had a birthday dinner for her. The next day, for everyone's sanity. She never did pick what she wanted, so she got a super-easy dinner of chicken nuggets, french fries, salad, veggies, and dessert was brownies and whipped cream (that part, she did pick). Afterwards, she eagerly ran off to the front room to sit on the couch and await her gifts from Grandma and Aunt Rachel. It took us a few minutes to realize she was waiting for us all to join her. ;) Grandma made her exactly what she requested: A stuffed elephant made from pink plaid fleece and a pink underbelly. I have no idea where she got the idea in her head that that was what she wanted, but she made it known months ago, and stuck to it like glue. And Rachel made her a lovely name banner, which is already hanging on her wall above her bed. Just what she wanted! I'll add some pictures of those sometime soon, I hope!