I believe it about March 28th when I heard whispers in the house about ‘birthday party’. This didn’t make sense to me considering the next birthday party on the list was two months away! But there were Sierra and Maman, plotting up every little detail about Sierra’s birthday party.
There is some mystical qualities surrounding the number seven and seeing that Sierra was turning seven, it was going to be a big deal.
The first step in any great party is figuring out who you want to invite and what limits your parents have put on the number of kids they can handle. Sierra thought long and hard and with pen and paper in hand made a list that looked like a wedding guest list. ‘Must-have’, ‘Maybe’, ‘Only if a bunch of people have dropped off’. At the end of the week the list appeared like Ezra had raided the pen drawer and had went to town creating an interesting collage. Blue pen, crossed out with red. Arrows everywhere. But it was finalized and the next step were invitations.
Now, I’m usually involved quite heavily in these plans but this time around Maman and Sierra had everything planned out so I was watching from the sidelines as I saw Amazon box after Amazon box arrive in the mail. Unicorn invitations, unicorn gift bag treats, unicorn cookie cutters (were we serving cookies I wondered?). Sierra is still at the age where princess dresses and unicorns occupy her thoughts and I encourage she continue until the inevitable goth phase in a few years.
She prepared the invitations and licked the envelopes and brought them to school. The teacher inserted the invitations into the backpacks of the invited. This process was probably a little less insulting than the 1980s method of seeing invitations delivered. “Hey, here’s an invitation to my party, oh Ryan you’re not invited. Neener neener.” Every kid in the 1980s must have felt like Charlie Brown with the football at various points of their lives. But nowadays kids in class are probably oblivious to parties that are happening without them.
Slowly the responses came in and Sierra kept track of them. The excitement was building and this was now only a month away.
One morning it was decided that we MUST fill up the treat bags. Sierra carefully thought of each one and who would get what. To put it into context, Maman ordered a unicorn themed treat bag kit that came with things like different coloured unicorn erasers and bags and those snap bracelets. Sierra would pick one bag and say “This was is going to be for Mia.” and sat and thought about each item and colour she was choosing for that person. I thought it was quite considerate of her invited guests whereas nowadays if I invite folks over for a birthday party all I’m thinking about is how much of my food and drink will I be left with after the party!
The plan was to hold the party at the park. Vero managed to book the fieldhouse so we would have access to the washrooms which are usually locked up. We even got the keys to the gate so we could drive all the supplies instead of hauling them down the street.
It was a cool 35 degrees outside when we packed the car with all the decorations and the step ladder to hang up all the decorations.
I am extremely happy that we managed to have some shade for most of the day because it was killer outside. There was a baseball game going on at the same time at the park and you can see them roasting out there.
Vero wisely started with a butterfly hunt where she placed little butterflies around the park. I say wisely because the prizes at the end were frozen treats to cool everyone down from running around! It was so hot out that the popsicles were even losing their shape so luckily we had some freezies on hand for everyone.
Sierra losing her freezie down her dress. There was a minor meltdown (ha! Just caught that pun) as that happened but we managed to clean it up.
Next up was the pinata! I always assumed that they came pre-filled with candy. It wasn’t until Vero sent me to the Bulk Barn on a mission that I realized this was not the case. My colleague Matt enjoyed searching around for candies to put into the pinata with me.
I had forgotten that these new pinatas don’t involve a stick but they have little ribbons to pull on. Everyone lined up for a turn and Ezra was the lucky winner to pull out the ribbon that created the candy explosion!
I thought I had seen some chaotic situations before in my life but when I see a dozen kids fighting over candy I sometimes wonder if this is true brutality.
The kids had all this candy but nowhere to put it! Sierra (I think?) suggested giving out the treat bags now so everyone would have a bag to put the candy in. Great idea! So everyone was excited to see all the treats they were going to get for the day earlier than expected. But it turned out to be a great idea as everyone took some time to play with their new treats and have some candy. Anything to keep us cool in the heat!
After some fun time at the park we brought out the cupcakes. It was hilariously windy so the candle kept blowing out. Here is a photo of everyone covering the candle from the wind which worked out pretty good!
Enjoying some cupcakes
Someone REALLY enjoying their cupcake!
I was mentioning chaos earlier in this post but it was nothing compared to the insanity that erupted when it was gift opening time. My eyes will never witness something more intense then girls yelling “NO, OPEN MY GIFT FIRST!” “NO MINE!” “BACK OFF GET YOUR OWN SANDWICH!” Hair was pulled, teeth were lost, eyes were gouged. It was a gnarly scene.
But in the end, a lot of unicorn themed gifts were acquired and Sierra and everyone were quite happy. Except that one girl who realized she brought the same gift as someone else. Luckily we explained that having two of the same thing is great if they are great gifts! She seemed to cheer up after that.
And with that, the party was done. Two hours flew by and it was all because Vero and Sierra did some great planning for the party. Some great events were held to keep everyone entertained and we lucked out being in the shade because it was sweltering hot when I walked out into the playground area for a few minutes.
I was around her friends pushing them on the swings near the end of the party and Emilie decided to take a flying leap off the swing. In my head I’m thinking “Oh hey, that’s wild. I know Sierra can’t do that yet.”
Clearly she couldn’t either as she landed on her hand and started screaming. Visions of a broken arm floated through my head as I carried her back to her parents. Luckily it seemed to be ok after fifteen minutes, but what a scare!
I have to take a moment and thank all the parents who stuck around for the party. I never realized how much work it is to keep an eye on 10 kids running around for two hours! It’s one thing if it’s your own kids, it’s another if I’m on the hook for the safety of someone else’s kid! So it was much appreciated for the folks who stuck around.
SUPER SPECIAL THANKS to Vero for her party preparations. Sierra and everyone had a great time and that’s what counts.
I always giggle at this photo. It looks like Ezra is trying to attract some older ladies at the park and they aren’t too impressed.
When we got home Sierra got to see her last gift…a gymnastic set to practice her moves.
How could I forget that somehow a birthday party wasn’t enough? She insisted on having an actual cake later that night and Maman made a great cake for us all.