Here's What's Cookin'

Paige and I had a change of heart for her birthday this year. Instead of the traditional, "go to the splash park and eat cake" which we have done for the past two years (cheap and easy), we opted for the more theme-y baking party at our house. The idea was simple, a few friends would come over, design an apron of their own which they would excitedly wear throughout the party while they made their own mini pizzas and decorated giant sugar cookies. However, nothing is that simple with Paige. Her guest list was made mid-July allowing ample time for changes. Her final count, including herself and her little sister (an obligatory invite), was 24!! I don't even have that many friends!! So our intimate little get-together turned into Paige's 7-year old bash!! But her little friends are all so cute, really who could we cut?? I did, however, draw the line there, despite her pleas for last minute additions. So with a little help from Paige, we made up the cutest invitations that looked and read like a recipe card.

Of course, as to be expected, none of my great party plans turned out just right. The aprons decorating lasted about 4 minutes and NO ONE wanted to put them on!! Who are these kids?? So we moved on to the pizza making. Now how did I not manage to take into consideration that 24 children each making 2 English muffin pizzas would take a huge amount of baking space, not to mention coordination of whose is whose?? I appropriately labeled each child's creation and let Steve and our friend Nate deal with divvying it up. Luckily, only one sad customer! While we waited for our pizzas to bake, I had prepared a custom game of BINGO called PAIGE where you had to get a row of matching food items rather than numbers. Last time I checked, that was a fun game!!! And so clever of me to make 24 different food-themed picture cards. But by the third or fourth food I had called, kids were bored and eating their M&M markers. Please notice my nicely weeded backyard. This took me several days work, many Diet Cokes and I even wore through a pair of gardening gloves. All because why??? I'm sure all 7-year olds are concerned with the landscape around them...more like I would like their parents coming to pick them up to allow them to play with Paige again and not think they left their children in the weed jungle to be attacked by killer bees!

So at that point we moved on to the presents. They had all started a stash inside the house, so there was a true parade of kids in and out the backdoor to haul them all to the backyard. Like most parties, we began in a circle that became tighter and tighter with the opening of each gift. It became so close that Paige even had to ask friends to "Back off", this causing one guest to trip over the big gift from mom and dad, ripping open the wrapping paper, which in turn caused all the kids to ohh and aahh over Paige's new Razor scooter that she still had not yet seen! I did start to notice a difference between boys and girls at the party this year. All the girls were fascinated by the gifts and the pretty bows and how nicely friends had signed their names on the cards, while the few boys in attendance were looking for grasshoppers and praying mantis' and throwing their chef rubber duckies at my yellow jacket traps...(smart idea!)

And then on to the cookies. STILL to this DAY, a source of contention in the Vincent home. But I must say, it all turned out well. I had ordered 3 dozen unfrosted sugar cookies from Granny B's bakery in Orem. Steve had spent the morning in Park City and went out of his way to pick them up. When he arrived, he was given this box. Does this look like 3 dozen unfrosted cookies to you????? He was told that when the order was taken back to production they were already done making sugar cookies for the week and someone was supposed to send me an email to let me know. Would he like them to send me the email while he waited? WHAT GOOD IS THAT GOING TO DO??? I AM PREPARING FOR 24 WILD ANIMALS TO COME TO MY HOUSE TO DECORATE COOKIES...AND THEY REALLY THINK I HAVE TIME TO CHECK MY EMAILS??? After many fine words over the phone between me and the Granny, in which I told her she would get her fanny in the car and drive on out here to explain to my 7 year old daughter how her choice to not make a phone call or send an email has ruined her birthday and then she could stay and entertain all 2 dozen of her closest friends for the next 2 hours since decorating the cookies was now OUT THE WINDOW!! Long story short, we got free cookies, and I'm pretty sure I will have to use an alias if I order from them again.

And then, why is it that when you run out of planned activities, give up and just let them run around to entertain themselves, that is when they have the most fun??

At this point in the party, I was ready to run into the house crying and drown myself in the 64 oz. Diet Coke that Steve had brought home earlier to prevent a mental breakdown. So we pulled out grandpa's parachute, and I'll tell ya...Grandpa BigMac totally saved the day!! The kids were squealing with delight as they tried not to bounce the Easter eggs off the parachute (still trying to stick with the theme here) and took turns running underneath. Paige's friends gradually trickled out, finally leaving just the 5 of us. Steve turned to me and asked, "So, was that a fun party?" I about decked him, especially considering that he spent most of the party in the air-conditioned house "Relief-Societying" with our friend, Nate. As calmly as I possibly could I replied, "No, that was not fun at all!" Before I could even dive into all the things that went wrong, a quiet little voice spoke up from behind us saying, "That was the best birthday EVER!! Thanks mom and dad!" And I guess that sums it up...Paige had a great birthday, so that makes it all worth it, right??