7 Years

Emma turned 7 on Sunday the 23rd. It makes me feel very old.

We decided to have a small party this year. We usually have tons of kids running around the back garden and their parents hanging around eating pizza and drinking beer. We've done that every year since she made her entrance into our lives, and while it's an awful lot of fun, I thought it was time for something a little different.

Places like Club Libby Lu and Chuck E. Cheese were out of the question, for obvious reasons. Emma and I had been to The Mad Potter before to make gifts for family and teachers, and I thought that would be a nice, calm place to have a little gathering.

We also decided that she was old enough to have a slumber party. I thought that inviting 4 girls over would be a good number, but it somehow got up-graded to 5 without me realizing. So, we were going to have 6 little 7-year-olds running around the house until late into the night. Hmmmmm...Chuck E. Cheese wasn't sounding quite so bad after all.

We met the gals at The Mad Potter on Saturday afternoon and they spent about an hour and a half or so choosing and painting their little ceramic creations. I think it took them more time to decide on what they wanted to paint than to actually do the painting itself. They had lots of fun, and worked hard on their pieces.


We took them home and they ran around the house and garden, chased poor little Rose, jumped on the trampoline, played in the tent, put glittery make up on, made a mess of Emma's room, played with walkie-talkies, and crushed cascarones on each other's heads. Fun fun fun.

There are more photos here if you're interested.

I made pizza, we had cake and ice cream, Emma opened her presents, and they settled down to watch Matilda. I can't think of a better film for a bunch of first grade girls to watch. They loved it!

Then, as luck would have it, I got one of my what I like to refer to as killer headaches. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but they leave me helpless, and often make me physically ill. Great timing huh? So, while I was laying in my dark bedroom trying not to die, Darrel took care of the girls for the rest of the evening. What a brave man.

They ran around for an hour or so playing with flashlights and scaring each other in the dark house. The screaming was great for my headache, but things could have been a lot worse, so I can't complain. Darrel said the last two finally fell asleep at about 11:00. We figured they'd all be really sleepy and wake up late. We know so little.

They were all up bright and early at 6:30. Pancakes were made and eaten, more running around the house and garden occurred, and then parents began to arrive. All the girls were gone by 10am, and there were no major injuries. That's what I call a successful sleep-over!

The rest of the day was just the three of us hanging out together. She opened the gifts that we bought her, we went to Maudie's for lunch, and then to the Main Event for the climbing wall. She had been there with Isabella H. before and had apparently done rather well, but this time, she just couldn't, or wouldn't, get up very far. I find that she's often a lot braver when Darrel and I aren't around. We played air hockey and then left.

We had a relaxing evening and she got to bed at a decent hour. I think she had a great birthday this year. Darrel and I sure had fun. Thank goodness we only have to do it once a year.