It's Never Too Late to Party!

A couple years ago, I sat all my kids down and had a talk with them.  No, not THAT talk.  I spoke to them about the fact that all parents have strengths and weaknesses.  Specifically, their mother bakes great bread, makes sure we study scriptures each night, gives lots of hugs, and deals with bugs and spiders without freaking out.  However, she's lousy at planning parties, and they really stress her out.  Consequently, I would continue preparing birthday dinners and desserts of their choice each year, but I wasn't going to plan any more birthday parties with themed games and decorations.

They took that sobering news in stride (bless them), but earlier this year when Joy went to a friend's birthday party, she came home with a look of longing on her face.  She told me that they had simply eaten pizza and cake and played around a lot, and she asked if I could handle hosting a low-key party like that.  I said that sounded manageable, and we agreed to plan a no-frills birthday party, even though her actual birthday was months ago.

It took me weeks to actually set a date (I don't know why party planning is so intimidating for me), but today we finally hosted several of Joy's friends for a six-month-late birthday party.  The girls played Balderdash . . .

. . . ate pizza (note to self, order more cheese pizza next time) . . .

. . . scooted around our hard floor in their socks . . .

. . . smashed open a donut pinata full of raffle tickets to win some prizes . . .

. . . ate ice cream cones (with Anna's approval) . . .

. . . then played with the two basketballs Joy received as birthday gifts (at her request).  Did you know she liked basketball?  I didn't.  When did that happen???

A few of the girls then played some songs they learned while taking Suzuki piano lessons.  Joy played one of her favorite songs from Book 1 and was pretty pleased with herself until one of the other girls sat down and played a minuet from Book 3.  It was impressive to hear someone Joy's age play something so complex and beautiful.  After everyone left, Joy commented that she'd like to start taking music lessons again.  Maybe it's time to start looking for a piano teacher.