Le Foo's birthday party bash is fast-approaching. On February 4th we will have an apartment full of guests; 8 children and 11-14 adults to be exact. I have been planning for this for about 3 weeks. I have done much research, list making, craft inventing, and supply shopping. I never realized how many details a party is made up of: invitations, guest list, party snacks, dinner, cake, cupcakes (because one cake won't feed all those people), activities for the kiddies, decor, party favors....and each of these items comes with it's own set of details and tasks for one, obsessive individual to get lost in.
A few nights ago I cut out butterfly and caterpillar templates (bodies and heads are separate). I also cut up a bunch of shapes for the kids to collage onto their bugs if they so desired.
Yesterday, after dropping Le Foo off with Grammy, Daddy and I went shopping for the big day. I thought he was going to kill me. In his mind, this shopping adventure was simple--I had a list, so I should just be able to find each item and grab it. But, he did not account for the numerous choices that one has to select from. Even the pre-selected decor, that Le Foo and I had looked at 2 weeks prior was an issue.
I deliberated in the aisle, for about 10 minutes, between two product lines....One had only butterflies, while the other had butterflies, ladybugs, and flowers. When we originally scoped out the party goods, Le Foo wanted the ones with just butterflies, while I thought the others would be better. She eventually agreed with me (due to my incessant coaxing). When I got to the store yesterday, however, I realized either one would work with the previously acquired decorations I had on hand. I called Le Foo to inform her of this, but, because of her desire to please me, she stuck by her choice, which was really MY choice. Poor kid. I also needed party hats, but the ones that came with the "set" were silly little headbands with antenna on them--my daughter knows what she wants, and those, in her book, were NOT party hats. Party hats, by her definition, are the cardboard, miniaturized dunce hats. So, I found some colored party hats and purchased two sets--one pink and one green (I didn't think that the three boys attending the party would be thrilled about wearing pink anything). The party hats, brightly colored and all, would not suffice in my book...next stop: AC MOORE, with "stickers for party hats" added to the list. Even the candles were an issue; I wound up with two number 5's (the one from party fair was blue, and I acquired one later from ShopRite that was purple), regular pink candles, and the candles that came with the party decor "set".
AJ already loathes AC MOORE because of his few experiences with me buying knitting supplies. It's just so easy for me to get lost in that store; I am consumed by all of the choices--my brain starts going at about 5,000mph and I can think or talk of nothing other than all the choices and all of my plans surrounding my choices.
I first tracked down all the necessities for the party favors. I allowed AJ to find the flower pots (one of which wound up being cracked...and people wonder why I am obsessively controlling while on a binge such as this), while I found the paint sets and paintbrushes. I still have yet to purchase the seeds, and have been going back and forth on the types of seeds to get--should they be seeds that produce purely decorative results (i.e.:flowers) or should they be seeds that produce beauty and functionality (i.e.: basil)...or maybe both. But, who wants two packs of seeds and one flower pot?
I then moved onto cake supplies. I needed two 9in round pans to add to my collection of cookware. This was pretty simple and straightforward--all they had was coated pans, so I was forced to buy them (although I would have preferred non-coated....that coated stuff freaks me out. I can't help but think of possible chemicals and food contamination with just one small nick of the pan's surface). I needed five different colors of sugar, 5 colors of decorator's gel. This was pretty simple too, although they did not have all of the colors I needed for the gel, so I proceeded to stand there, staring, convinced that I was simply missing something.
Onto the craft supplies I moved, with AJ on the verge of a complete meltdown caused by boredom. He was begging me to allow him to find something from the list, but I refused, telling him he simply would not pick the right item. I had already bought 8 small glue bottles for a project I thought we would do at the party, but Le Foo and I tried it out, and the results were awful. The glue bottles simply would not suffice for the new and improved craft idea that I had in mind, so eight "disappearing purple" glue sticks were added to the cart. The sticker aisle was Aj's breaking point. He was throwing a tantrum while I stood, staring, not knowing which butterfly stickers to choose, and wishing there were more insect stickers for me to decorate the boy's hats with. After what seemed like an eternity I selected several different packs of stickers and moved on to find more embellishments for the craft. Glitter glue, was a must and, while AJ whined about the glitter that would be turning up everywhere for weeks following the party, I selected two bottles of each party-theme matching color. While deliberating over pom-pom colors, AJ approached me with pipe cleaners. I immediately refused them--they just were not the colors I was looking for....I mean, come on, who wants primary colored antenna on girly butterflies? I finally decided on two different color families of pom-poms, in two different sizes. Then, I moved onto the pipe cleaners and selected a pastel pack and a neon pack. With AJ on the verge of insanity, we checked out, threw everything in the car and moved on to ShopRite.
This store was simple: 5 containers of icing, 4 boxes of cake mix, and the two tubes of decorator's gel that I couldn't find at AC MOORE.
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| the results of the our hour long shopping spree. |
When our excursion was over, I told AJ that next year, I would devise a plan to throw a party for Le Foo that did NOT involve this much excess--maybe we will have a reduce-reuse-recycle themed birthday bash for 2013.
