Zoë's birthday party (friends edition!)

I have been simply awful about birthday parties the past...several years.

How bad, you might be asking. Quite terrible, honestly.

I don't think I've thrown a party since January 2018 for Miriam's 8th birthday party when she invited two friends over for a party (or, at least, two friends who came). And when did Miriam turn 8?

October 2017. 

But Alexander was born just a few weeks before Miriam turned 8. Postpartum was...rough...and Alexander was going through all his breathing issue stuff...and I was not ready for a birthday party just a couple of weeks later. But we did throw a shindig for their combined baptism/blessing celebration so that almost counts (with a small "sorry I missed your birthday" party four months later). 

Anyway...I...uhhhh...haven't thrown a party since. 

I just...somehow couldn't. It was like the birthday party planning part of my brain just completely fell out of my head.

Oh, we still had family celebrations. But a friend party? In this economy?

I'm not really blaming the economy here...it's a meme. But maybe the economy did contribute to my inability to let loose and have fun a little bit. Who is to say, really?

If I had to put my finger on it, I'd say some major contributors to my lack of ability to pull off a party was a combination of (1) a global pandemic, (2) grad school, and (3) another baby. At the very least. 

Add in kids getting older and engaging in more extracurriculars (swimming every day) and, I mean, we're plum worn out as parents.

When Zoë was 9 she wanted a Harry Potter birthday (and just now I am realizing that 9 was not last year but the year before) so I went so far as to gather decorations and she went so far as to make a blueprint of the cake she wanted. Her guest list was extravagant. We were going to do this!

But then we didn't? For some reason (a wedding, perhaps, and the start of swim season, and a beach trip and...I dunno...there are always a million reasons why, right?). Also, her birthday was on the mock meet day!

Since she wanted a Harry Potter birthday party, though, we decided it would be so fun(ny) to throw her a 9-and-three-quarters party! She could celebrate her birthday in February (I'm good at February birthdays)...but we missed that as well. So then we thought—May! We'll just throw her a Harry Potter party for her 10th birthday.

Ha! Again, I just couldn't. 

So I was quite determined to throw her a party this year—because 11 is the year kids get their letters for Hogwarts!

But do you all remember what's been going on this month? Here's a recap:

• finals due May 4
• depart for Europe May 5
• home from Europe May 13
• swim season begins...May 12...missed that one!
• spring recital May 16
• Rachel goes through the temple May 20
• Mock meet May 21
• Zoë's birthday May 23

How in the world have I only been home from Europe for two weeks? It feels like a million years ago. I have been gifting furniture left and right, cleaning and organizing and packing, getting carloads of stuff to take to Goodwill...running to the airport to convince border control that we're lovely, normal people (they actually bought it—can you believe it?!)...and so forth. It's been...a whirlwind. 

And then my friend texted and was like, "Hey—kinda last minute, but we want to have a birthday party for Kate. We're just going to play games in the church gym, really low key."

And I was like, "That sounds great! We have to clean the church that morning so we'll be there already. Ugh—but that's Zoë's actual birthday. I need to throw her a party this year. Maybe we'll just follow your lead and throw a gym game party for her next weekend or something."

Gym game parties have been all the rage among our group of friends lately. 

And my friend texted back and said, "Why don't we just celebrate them together? Throw a joint party? Not even kidding. I'd have to run it by Kate, but I don't see why she wouldn't want to..."

So she ran it by Kate and I ran it by Zoë and both girls agreed that would be fine (so long as they finally got their party—Kate had her birthday last month and has been waiting for a party, but her family is going through some transitions as well (adding a teenage foster child) and so Kate's party became less of a priority and I mean...these things happen, okay? Sometimes they happen for a decade...)). 

Between my friend and I we cobbled together enough guests and food to have a good time!

I scored a billion cupcakes from the Buy Nothing Group (BNG) and we were all so busy doing things that I wasn't even sure I'd be able to pick them up (because they had to be picked up right then). But someone from the BNG commented under my comment saying I would love them for this joint party (but didn't know if I could pick them up right then) to say that she wasn't doing anything and could swing by the school to pick them up and deliver them to me (because we've been gifting so many things on the BNG and she wanted to show her gratitude). 

Another Buy Nothing Group miracle! 

(I'm really going to miss our Buy Nothing Group, I think).

Later that night we carefully removed all the graduation decorations and redecorated them.

Rachel also made pie, which was what Zoë really wanted for her birthday treat. Funny enough, the pie didn't even make it in the van to come to church with us!

I had written a very precise list of things to grab in the morning and it was very nearly useful!

We did grab many of the things. Someone grabbed the watermelon, a cutting board, and knife...and then checked that off. Someone grabbed the decorations and then checked that off. Someone grabbed the cupcakes and then check that off.

Benjamin saw that we had everything on the list checked off except for pie...so he checked it off. 

And then I looked at the list and declared us ready for take off. 

Except that no one actually grabbed the pie. 

Benjamin had simply assumed that someone had because it was the last thing on the list!

It wasn't a huge deal because Andrew had some time to run out to get it while we were playing games. But...it was pretty funny that my list failed so spectacularly. 

Anyway, here's Zoë scootering around while waiting for guests to arrive:

Not much was Harry Potter themed, aside from the decorations, but that's okay.

Another thing you should know about Zoë is that she had the audacity to be born Memorial Day weekend. Of all the gall!

She was specifically told not to! 

Our neighbours, who were our designated people-to-call-to-watch-our-kids-while-we-went-to-the-hospital, told her to not come that weekend because they were going out of town (and she wasn't due for a couple of weeks). 

But she came anyway, on the Saturday before Memorial Day. 

And we had to call our backup-backup-backup babysitters (who are awesome, but literally everyone we knew seemed to be going out of town for Memorial Day and these dear friends lived a little farther away than what was convenient and I thought I was going to die...or have this baby on the living room floor...by the time they arrived) and then she was born and we called to say she'd arrived and the babysitters said, "That's so, so great! Congratulations! And also...we locked ourselves and all your children out of the house so if you have a spare minute could you please...come back to let us into the house?"

Her birthday once again fell on the Saturday before Memorial Day and I just...Americans take Memorial Day way more seriously than I do. Like, everyone always seems to have Plans for the weekend and I'm always like, "There's a holiday...?"

So, unfortunately for Zoë (and Kate), we had a hard time finding anyone available to attend the party. 

Kate landed on one boy from her school class. Zoë landed on one boy from the swim team. 

But between Kate's family and ours we really padded the numbers. 

Here are people playing "Helicopter" (which is essentially "Four Corners"):

We also played Barnacle, a specific version of the game "Captain's Coming" or "Ships and Sailors" or "Starboard." Someone is chosen to give commands—barnacle makes everyone fall to the floor or cling to the wall, lighthouse makes everyone group into three with two making an arch with their arms and the third spinning around inside, x-number in a boat makes everyone scramble to sit in groups of x-number, captain's coming makes one person get on their hands and knees and another put their foot on their back and salute...and so forth. It's an elimination game, so here are some pictures of the last few kids standing:

...or not standing:

Here's Phoebe getting a hug from Alex after being eliminated from some game or other:

Here they are playing Land/Sea/Air:

They also played a pin the scar on the One Piece character (I'm not familiar enough with One Piece to know which character, but the kids were rather entertaining while playing—Christine made them get super dizzy before unleashing them blindly). 

Here are the kids scoping out the food table:

Here's Zoë and Kate being sung to after lunch:

No candles because...open flames aren't allowed in the church building...but that's okay because we had more pie later!

Here's Zoë with a pumpkin pie (we are still trying to use up the pumpkin we have stashed in the freezer):

And here's a view of the cupcakes (those blue cupcakes made people look like they'd been eating Smurfs):

I am so glad that Christine suggested we just celebrate these girls together because I don't know how I would have pulled off a whole party on my own this year (or...any year in the past decade...apparently).

We were happy Zoë managed to sneak in a Georgia birthday party! Lucky girl!