one last party

Today we had our final birthday celebration to mark Miss Abby turning seven. We invited a few of her little friends over for some lunch and cupcakes. Usually I like to keep this party at around 5 kids, but this year Mike thought we should let Abby double it and have 10 plus Abby. After the invitations had been sent he agreed to do some farming work for our friend T.

I'll wait for a second while you process that.

Leaving me by myself to manage eleven, seven year olds and my own holy terror of a three year old. For various reasons I didn't feel comfortable asking any of the grandmas for help. What was I going to do?

Luckily I managed to trade our friend T, my husband for his wife. And I am telling you folks if you are ever considering having a birthday party for the seven year old set you should hire her immediately. I have no idea why I ever had a party without her. Going in her favour she is our Parent's Council co-chair (with my Michael) and she has spent countless hours at the school volunteering her time. So because of that she knew all the kids and all the kids knew her and bonus -- view her as an authority figure. That left me free to run the behind the scenes stuff like lunch, gifts, cupcakes, drinks and handing out the take home goodie.

And now the behind the scenes stuff -- could not have run as smoothly as it did if not for the unexpected surprise of Grandma Linda. Normally Grandma Linda is one of my go-to people when I'm in need of an extra hand, but she is currently going through some medical issues in relation to one of her eyes. She has a short list of things she's not supposed to be doing, but like many of us ladies she probably should be taking it easier than she is. Even still she showed up here an hour before party time and said -- I'm here to help what can I do. Which was fantastic because I was in desperate need of a shower for starters. And I had suffered a series of little setbacks that morning that had really compromised my ability to get the take home goodie (little cookie bouquets - i didn't get a picture snapped before they were all gone) complete. So while I showered she took over cookie wrapping for me. Then she stayed through lunch and helped us get the kids fed and back out playing.

I honestly could not have managed this all without ML and Grandma Linda. I owe them both huge!!



And now a very quick party recap. I made cupcakes. Are they not totally adorable? I'm not usually one to gush (too much) over my own work, but I love these cupcakes. And they were a huge hit with the "not-so-littles-anymore" too.

Can you indulge me while I brag on my amazing little girl for a moment. About a month ago I made a suggestion to Abby that perhaps she would consider accepting donations of canned goods for Wesley Centre instead of birthday gifts. We discussed how lucky we are and how others don't have as much as we do, but ultimately the decision was entirely hers to make. I was only a tiny bit surprised that it was something she not only wanted to do, but was very excited about as well.

What I was not expecting was how emotional I got as parents started arriving with their kids and bags of canned goods in hand. Some of them came with a little gift for Abby as well and all had a nice word to say about what a sweet girl I have. It was the kind of day that fills a Mommy's heart to near bursting.



The final leg of this journey will have Abby taking these items down to Wesley Centre to hand over the donations herself.

Thanks to all the parents who so generously donated.