Now She Is Six

Betsy's lucky: she got to have her birthday party on her actual birthday. And I, being burdened with more ambition than common sense, thought it would be a kickin' idea to throw her a birthday party. You know, with all my spare time and whatnot. Actually, once I was able to scale back my expectations a little bit, I was able to come up with some ideas that were perfectly suited to the attention span of five- and six-year-olds. And I was able to do the whole thing - decorations, invites, goody bags and all - for around fifty bucks. Thank You, Hobby Lobby.

Unfortunately, Matt woke up this morning with the stomach bug that's been making its rounds in our family. Fortunately, both Betsy and I had already had it, so we were able to make do. Of course with my Chief Balloon Blower-Upper we were in danger of having no balloons because I can't blow them up to save my life. (Insert "But you're full of hot air! Ha ha!" joke here.) Fortunately I was able to use the foot pump from one of our million air mattresses, and good thing too, because the balloons were a huge hit. I mean that literally - the girls were all whacking each other gleefully with them. And if you haven't seen seven kindergarteners with their hair standing on end from static, let me tell you, it's something.

Anyway, Betsy was a gracious and charming host/birthday girl and all her little friends were sweet. They played Duck Duck Goose and Pin The Crown On The Princess and had cupcakes with pink frosting and colored princesses (seriously, at this age it's so easy to keep them entertained) and even made a craft. And Porter had a lovely time clomping around the living room in Betsy's new Cinderella slippers.*

*(He is going to kill me for that when he is sixteen.)