Saskia's birthday party

Yes, I'm a lame mom. My daughter's birthday was almost 2 whole weeks ago and I am just getting around to blogging about it. I have a good excuse, as I just started a new job, but I still think I'd better get these thoughts down before they leave my flighty mind.

Unfortunately this post will have to consist mostly of text, as I'm not willing to publish pictures of other people's kids on my blog without their permission. Especially in light of what happened to my friend Cristina with some perv viewing her flicker photos I'm leary of posting any pics at all, but I figure pictures of a kid on a bike should be pretty safe. Then again....

Saskia's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which was nice. She woke us up around 6:30 am (this is the girl who I normally have to force out of bed at 11:00 in the summer) to open her presents. Coming downstairs she found a pile from us, Grandma & Grandpa and Great-Grandma. The bear, named Chloe, was a big hit, thanks Great-Grandma!



Barbie Mariposa was something she's been wanting for a long time; she was thrilled to finally get it.



But the best present was her bike. Her last bike was for 2-4 year olds, and at 7 that just wasn't cutting it anymore. I think she likes it, despite the haughty, "what do YOU want?" look on her face.



We spent the day shopping, baking, cleaning and decorating. The party was a "Girl's Night" theme. The girls came in their p.j.'s and had pizza to start. Next we played a "Getting to Know You" game, where the girls filled out these questionnaires about themselves, then they were passed in a circle and read out loud so that everyone could guess who the cards belonged to. The girls had fun, although the game was a bit tough for 7 year olds to keep their patience through.

That game was followed by "Hot Potato". Since it was a night theme as each girl got "out" of the game she got to pick a stuffed animal to take home (thank you Party Store for going out of business and putting your Beanie Babies on clearance!)

All this took considerably less time than I thought it would, so we were left with about 45 minutes to kill. BIG mistake. 45 minutes of free time plus 9 6-7 year olds (and 1 4 year old) equals insanity. The girls screamed. And ran around. And screamed. And jumped on things. And screamed. And screamed. Think "Hannah Montana" meets "Animal House". Oh yeah, fun times.

Wrapping it up... we eventually brought out cake and ice cream, Saskia opened her presents (she got killer loot, thanks everyone, you rock!) and then they played "Musical Chairs" (and screamed) until their parents got there. Her favorite present was the "Project Runway" designer paper dolls. She wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up and is already busy creating her own designs. Tim, Heidi, what do you think?



All in all it was a fantastically fun time, but so very different from her six year old party which was very princess-y and sweet. It is yet another reminder, among many, that my little girl is not little anymore. She is growing in so many wonderful ways and becoming so wise, yet so tween-difficult at the same time. Sigh, I miss my baby, but I love my young lady. Happy birthday, dear Saskia, I love you.

Quirky Meme

I was tagged by Mimi and Lisa (and possibly other people, I've lost track) for this quirky meme. Since I don't know that many bloggers and as far as I can tell all the ones I do know have already been tagged, I won't be following the last two rules, which are:

The Rules
* Link to the person who tagged you.
* Mention the rules.
* Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
* Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
* Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment to let them know that they’ve been tagged.

1) I can't eat breakfast AND have coffee. It has to be one or the other. Usually I just have coffee and skip the food, but on the rare occasions that I decide to be responsible and eat something because I know I'll be gone all day and I *need* food I will eat cereal. This usually makes me feel nauseous and nasty making me forgo my morning coffee, then I get mean. It's a vicious cycle.

2)I can't stand chunky bits of butter on my bread or anything else. It has to be spread extremely thinly, almost so that you can't see it, yet evenly, reaching everywhere.

3) I am fanatical about how I separate my laundry. I usually have at least 7 different loads: hot/whites, warm/lights, warm/darks, cold/lights, dark/lights, cold/reds and warm/reds. When we had our awesome German washing machine (how I miss you!) that allowed me to chose the size of the load and conserve water this meant I did many, many small loads of wash every couple of days. Now that we have our awful American thing (technically it's Italian but we bought the $800 piece of crap here- LG you suck!) I will save little bundles of wash for weeks, waiting to have enough for that particular combination.

4) I am also fanatical about drying laundry and hang up almost everything. Because of my laundry fetishes my husband has been forbidden from doing laundry as he inevitably gets it wrong!

5) I absolutely hate to be late, it turns me into a screaming banshee and makes me so nervous I can feel my insides itching.

6) I also HATE disorganization. I inevitably have a horrible time at any school or volunteer event because I spend the entire time internally seething about how things should have been done. It makes my twitch when glitches occur that throw things off by even a couple of minutes, and I hate when there aren't enough rules established (like only TWO cookies per child, that kind of thing) or when people don't do what they are told as soon as they are told to do it.