Araceli and the Birthday Party of Doom

The three birthday girls:  Ellen, Araceli and Elise.  What are the odds of it being the actual birthday of two of your party guests!?

One of these girls has the stomach flu.  The others will have it tomorrow.  Or maybe it was just the pancakes.

Several types of sugar.  No veggies.

Mmm...pancake-like food!

Ari was at ballet from all day today, between her class, Nutcracker, getting dropped off early for costume fittings so I could pick up Golda at flute, sisters' rehearsals and waiting for me to teach.  I think she was still wearing her tights and leo at the party.  Her bun looks pretty spent.

Tolly in his "blackout" attire.  Go Utes...   :(  At least the party was more of a success than the game today.  But that's not saying much.

At 4:10 this afternoon, I was driving home from the store with a birthday cake, wondering whether the party started at 4 or 4:30.  I don't know which time I was hoping for.  If it was 4:00 and the girls had already arrived, I'd be ahead.  In a way.  Have I taken my blase "lower your standards" motto too far?  Some of Ari's friends never even got invited because I lost my phone and can't hold a thought long enough to track down their numbers or drive to their houses.

The party was at 4:30.  With the 15 minutes I had to get ready, I was lucky Jennifer came and helped me set up the table, ditch the dead flowers that were acting as a centerpiece and make pancake batter.  She saved me a second time when she came back with her camera and took these great pictures.  I could not find my camera!  Between Jennifer, Golda and Ruby, we managed to pull together an awesome dinner of oval and trapezoid-shaped pancakes for 12 third graders.  Yes, that was what we served for Araceli's "dinner party" birthday.  When I sent out the invites, I had visions of fancy table settings, candelabras, prime rib and sparkly drinks.  Then I remembered 1. I'm not Elton John and 2.  you can put chocolate chips and syrup on dog food and kids will love it. So I was pretty sure the pancakes would be a big hit with all the sugary toppings we had available.  I was right.  Even Sir Elton probably would have loved those pancake-shaped lumps of hastily prepared dough covered with syrup, peanut butter, chocolate chips and whipped cream.

After "dinner" the kids played Capture the Flag outside under the direction of Golda and Ruby.  It was fun and probably would have made me less uneasy if Ari hadn't previously chosen several girls at random and told them to wear their fanciest dress to the party.  When I saw Ellison crawling through the scrub oak in her beautiful dirndl, I knew I would have to give Sarah permission to end our friendship. 

Just when I had put Ptolemy down and was thinking about eating a pancake myself in the quiet house, I heard the rallying cry, "Time for cake and ice cream!"  The stampede of kids was followed by singing, singeing, (lighter+Ruby's fingers), cake, ice cream and...throwing up.  I'm no stranger to vomit, having six kids, and having been thrown up on at the past two ballet recitals by kids who were not my own.  Not a problem.  I got Ari's poor little friend to the garbage can (and the sink) right in time.  Of course, she was probably the only girl at the party who didn't know her own phone number, so she observed the rest of the festivities holding a bowl and resting on the couch.  Sweet girl, she was such a good little sport.  One of the other girls, a wonderful child, went and sat by the sick girl, declining cake and ice cream to do so.  "No thank-you.  I don't really care for cake anyway."  It was maybe the kindest thing I have ever seen.

I may not have done this sweet group of girls justice with my sloppy inviting and minimal preparations, but Ari was happy.  And you know what?  It was a beautiful day which I thoroughly appreciated.  I might be a complete stranger to perfection, but I'm not worried about it.  If a half-baked party is the trade-off for enjoying a gorgeous Saturday of sunny, 70 degree weather, music and dance, football and family and a couple of hours spent with Ari's delightful friends, so be it.  I think it's a pretty good trade-off.