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My contribution was to stay up til 5am the night before the party rough-editing a DVD montage of pics, music,  and video clips of K during the last two years.  I created one right before Christmas in 2007 covering the first 2 years of her life, so I guess this one could be considered part 2.  I only have enough ambition to put one of these puppies together every 2 years.  My creativity has bounds, people. 

The party games were a hoot.  They did ‘pin the sticker on the “My Little Pony” butt’, ‘Pony scavenger hunt’, ‘toilet paper mummies’, and of course, the Pony Piñata.   (Technically, is a piñata considered a party game or is it in a category of its own?  I’m unclear on this point…)   K also kept dragging people around to play what she considered to be the ultimate party game: “balloon toss”.  I don’t know that I’d qualify that as a “game”, as it had no points, rules, or objectives but hey, she was the birthday girl so whatever.  

The toilet paper mummies were hysterical because we had situations where kids were helping other kids wrap up in toilet paper, so there was mayhem on all sides.  K seemed a little confused/uncertain at first while getting mummified, but when it came time to “break free” from her bindings, she thought it was so much fun that she demanded to be wrapped back up a couple more times.  I think she probably would have let us keep wrapping her up and shredding her way out for the rest of the day. 

I was concerned that she might be…distressed…by people taking a bat to her beloved pink pony piñata, but my worries were completely unfounded.  She was the first in line with the bat, and she wanted to be the one to deliver the death-blow.  Surprisingly, after the initial candy-gathering rush, the kids proved to be rather indifferent and the adults ended up cleaning up the remaining loot from the lawn.  I don’t remember that in my hazy childhood recollections of piñata insanity, but maybe there was a) too much candy or b) the group demographics are a little young still.  Very mysterious. 

Anyway, the highlight for me was my one creative party idea: a build-your-own-sundae-bar for the kids instead of doing traditional cake & ice cream.  Fortunately Aunt Carole had the perfect coffee table to set up outside for the kids so they could sit at their own level and build their creations.  It.was.awesome!  Messy, sticky, crazy, goodness.  But everyone had a lot of fun with it, and I had a moment of pure childish joy as I circled through the masses squirting canned whipped cream directly into all the kids’ mouths (ok, and one of the parents too, I must be honest.)  Does it get any better than that? 

As soon as UNCLE BUBBA gets on the ball and gets me a copy of his pics from the party, I’ll post a few here to recap the mayhem. Especially the dastardly sight of small children using an aluminum bat to pummel the life out of a small pink pony.  Delightful. 

So she is very proud and excited to be 4 and is happy to tell everyone about it.  Wish she’d just slow down on the growing-up thing.  (sniff.) 

Of course the week following the party was a mad rush of homework, house cleaning, and a little Thanksgiving day prep.  We weren’t hosting this year fortunately (still way too many boxes and crap in the way) but we did make a couple dishes to bring.  Monday afternoon, for some unknown reason, K’s eyes weren’t in focus and were not tracking together at all.  When we asked her about it, she basically described double-vision in kid terms.  So yeah, I was a panicky mess and freaking out.  Fortunately she didn’t have any other symptoms of head trauma or anything, so we waited til the next morning to take her to see the pediatrician.  Dr. Salad did a basic vision test (pain in the ass with a 4-year-old, let me tell you) and examined her, and basically said she might be starting down the path of strabismus or lazy eye, and sometimes it happens like that…when kids spontaneously start having vision issues and frighten their poor parents to death.  Both FF and I have some vision issues so it wouldn’t be too surprising for her to have genetic fallout in the headlight department.  We have already scheduled an exam with a pediatric ophthalmologist in January, so we’ll see.  She has been normal ever since that day, so who knows. 

So the poor kid missed her preschool Thanksgiving party because of the urgent doctor appointment.  Oh well, maybe next year.  The cornbread she carefully made for the party got redirected to Thanksgiving.  And Thanksgiving itself was a very nice day, with lovely warm weather, happy kids running around hitting each other with sticks and throwing cake in the empty pool, etc.  Aunt Carole and Uncle Vic always make a killer turkey so the food was great and it was overall a very mellow and relaxing afternoon.  Pumpkin cheesecake roll, yuuuuuummmmmm. 

And so then Gmom and Uncle Bubba came down to our house following Thanksgiving so that UB could be our slave-labor minion for a couple days.  We went to Lowe’s and picked out Christmas lights for the house, and then UB and FF got to try out our new ladder (thanks Aunt D!) to put ‘em all up.  It turned out pretty well but we still need a few more strands to finish off the tree.  Once that wee task was done, we started in on the much bigger and more annoying job: painting the long accent wall in the master bedroom, to cover up the obnoxious gang graffiti from when the house was empty and in foreclosure.  The wall is now a gorgeous shade of bright, dark purple, known as “Fresh Grape Juice”.  Uncle Bubba is a really good painter in general but it’s always hard work with dark colors that join a white wall seam.  We’ll have to do a little white touch up later to fix a couple booboos.  Big huge thank you to UB for his help – I am SO happy to finally get the bedroom done. 

So long, gang graffiti!

We actually have pictures on the wall now!!!

And just ‘cuz he’s a sweet little bro, he indulged me in also painting one of the walls in the downstairs bathroom since we had leftover paint, and it was a little boring in there.  It took way longer to tape off and edge that small wall than to actually paint the bulk of it.  But it too is now a beautiful “Fresh Grape Juice” and looks awesome.  Bro–you gave me the best Christmas present ever by getting all that done!  I owe you big time. 

Taping...taping....taping....

That edge needs some work, dude

Creative music management during painting

So…then last Saturday, we went to Sears and had portraits done of the evil genius.  We actually were going to do a family portrait but we were all busy painting until about 1am on Friday night, and I hadn’t yet unpacked the box with all my nice-ish clothes.  So we forfeited the full family portrait and just went for kiddo pictures.  I have been distinctly lax in this department (getting professional pictures taken that is) because when K was barely 1 year old, all the siblings took the cousins to Sears to sit for a “grandkids” picture as a surprise for Gmom.  It was so crazy that it scarred me and I couldn’t bring myself to take her back for pictures until now.  Yes, it took me three years to get over the insanity of one portrait session with eight kids, some of whom screamed constantly and kept trying to run away from the staging area.  (shudder)  Anyway, K’s picture session went quite well this time, except for the fact that K is terminally unable to smile on command.  She either looks like she is wincing in pain, trying to growl, or struggling through a severe case of constipation.  I have to give the kid credit; she really tries, but she just can’t seem to produce a genuine smile on command.  Oh well, (most of) the pictures are still beautiful.

This one goes in the hall of shame

Nestled amongst all that mayhem was K2′s birthday party (she is only 9 days younger than K so their parties always fall approximately a week apart.)  It was a very fun party, and our little evil genius spent a long time playing with K2′s very large blow-up shark, chasing all her cousins around pretending to eat them with the shark.  Hmmm, I wonder what that means.  

She has been sleeping pretty well lately, thankfully.  Eating comes in fits and spurts.  Sometimes she’ll go 3 or 4 days without eating much of anything, and then ravenously consume a large meal and then go back to not eating for a few more days.  Developmentally speaking, she is still really good friends with the word “NO” and continues to throw us new curve balls all the time.  I find myself at the end of the day occasionally falling into ridiculous, clichéd parenting traps, even.though.I.know.better.  Like bargaining and bribing to get stuff done.  Like threatening to put her in time- out for the next two years.  Le sigh.  Guess we can’t be super-moms all the time, right?  RIGHT?