Ainsley's Birthday

I actually started this post over a month ago. But, because of my previously confessed obsession with Facebook I haven't finished it up until now! The good news about my recent obsession is that now I have a TON of Flashback Friday material!! _____________________________________

Ainsley turned 8 on Black Friday. And because I have my priorities straight I went shopping with my sister and convinced Ainsley that she needed to wait until the next week to have a party because all of her friends would likely be out of town for the holidays. Smooth, huh?

She didn't mind mostly because for the first time ever I let her invite all of her classmates. Since we're new, it is difficult to only invite one or two kids from her class. The school does not allow passing out birthday invitations at school unless there is one for every child. And because I don't know any of the parents to invite them personally we decided to go ahead and let her invite ALL 25 of her fellow classmates!

We rented an indoor facility at a really cool park here. The night we rented it for was the first night of the steam engine rides around the park and Santa visiting! I thought that surely this would go really smooth... I wouldn't have to come up with a lot of stuff to entertain. They would play a game and eat cake and open presents and then ride the train. If there was still time, I had a craft planned. That's it! Easy peasy, right?! Well....

Set up was smooth. Here's the 'cake': We did a polka dot theme...

We got there early so no problems. Until... I realized that I had forgotten to pick up some ice cream. Once again, no problem. I called my dad and asked him to stop by Braum's and pick some up. Then realized that there was not a freezer to store it in. Oh well, soft ice cream never killed anyone. Kids started arriving and a few of the parents stuck around. Usually, I'm okay with this. But because I didn't know any of them I was feeling very nervous... almost like I was performing!

We played a few rounds of Bingo: We opened the presents: Don't ask about the second photo up there. I'm not sure what came over me.... I was having some anxiety and sometimes this is how I react!

We ate cake and drank ice cream.... seriously. Not only was it soft but, of course, I forgot to bring spoons. Like an official idiot. Oh, I'm sure these parents were REAL impressed with me! I'm sure Ainsley will get all kinds of birthday invites to these kids' parties!

Last, but not least... we rode the train:

This is where I was super glad that some of the parents stuck around! There were about 15 kids to corral during our ONE HOUR wait to ride this thing!!! Thank goodness it wasn't cold... love that Arkansas weather! By the time we were done riding the steam engine/tram thing it was time for the party to be over!! Parents picked up their kids and all was said and done. Not too bad, I guess. One little guy did ask me where his goodie bag was... oops. I think I subcontiously was boycotting the whole goodie bag thing but in reality the little craft that I had planned was for them to take home. Since that didn't happen, they didn't get anything. I felt bad about it for about 30 seconds. Then I was fine.

Remember the ice cream? On the way home from the party I realized that I had forgotten it! Thing is, Geoff cleaned up and packed everything away while we were at the train so the lady that was on duty in the building could go home. What he didn't know was that I had stuck the ice cream in the microwave thinking that the insulation MIGHT keep it from melting so quickly. Yep, you guessed it. It was left in there. When I realized what had happened, I stressed out for a few minutes because I didn't want to lose my $50 deposit!! But... what was I supposed to do? I called the next morning and just mentioned that I had left something, maybe I could come get it. (Secretly hoping I could just clean up the mess without them knowing.) Well, she asked what I left because they had a clean up lady in there already. So, I just told her. "I left 2 half gallons of ice cream in the microwave." She said, "Let me check to see if they are still in there." Pause. She said, "I'm sorry ma'am, but they cleaning lady through them out." She was so apologetic that she couldn't return them to me!! I said, "No, that's fine. I didn't want them back. I just didn't want to lose my deposit!" She assured me that I would get my deposit. Dodged that bullet!

So, basically, I'm an idiot sometimes but Ainsley had the best birthday! She loved it. Happy Birthday, Sweet Cheeks!