Big Girl Birthday Party

E's birthday parties to date have been family parties: our friends and their kids along with her friends and their parents. Loads of fun, and we probably would have done it again if we still lived in Red State Capital City Suburb.

But we moved, and now E is at school and there is a flourishing birthday party scene. She's been invited to a party with 20 kids, a carnival, and a musician (granted, it was a joint party for three kids) and two parties at the gym. We gave her a choice: she could have a big party with lots of kids or she could go to the paint your own pottery place around the corner with three friends (and she couldn't talk about it at school--that's our rule: invite everyone, or invite just a few but don't talk about it, and certainly you cannot invite everyone but one or two).

E's dream has been a paint your own pottery birthday party, so that's what she chose. Later we upped the count to five, for various social reasons, but we ended up with three anyway, because one couldn't come and one called in sick.

Will anyone be surprised if I say it was delightful? I think I am.

We walked to the paint your own pottery place, E holding E's hand, and A holding C's hand (E had been very clear that everyone had to hold someone's hand while we walked, and I was given the delicate task of hand-holding assignments, and in this case, I must say that I gave priority to my E, because the other E is the alpha girl in the class, and everyone wants to hold her hand). They were well-behaved and charming while very carefully painting their pottery--I thought it would take about 15 minutes, but they lasted at least 30.

Then we came home, hand in hand again, and had cake and ice cream and presents (here we bucked the Town trend: at every party E has gone to, the presents have not been opened--I must say, this is a practice I disapprove of, not opening the presents, because I think it deprives kids of the pleasure of giving, not to mention the opportunity to learn that it's not always about them). They played with balloons, and the presents, and then the moms came, and then--here's where it veered off course, in the most pleasant of ways--the girls got into the dressups and decided to make a show, and the moms sat in the living room and chatted (and S went to the grocery store--M had already gone off to her friend E's birthday party, two hours late, so she would get to paint some pottery), and everyone stayed for an extra hour and a half, and we had a lovely time.

Not a squabble, not a tear.

And big girl presents, too: games, art projects, Polly Pockets.

[And if you were wondering about the cake, E asked for the same cake as last year (Old-Fashioned Chocolate), and it was once again fine, if not that exciting.]

[And if you were wondering about my #1 birthday party tip: blow up a whole bag of balloons, no strings, and leave them on the living room floor. Hours of inevitable fun.]