Less than 24 hours

Tomorrow we are having a birthday party for Olivia. She turns 5 at the end of this month. This is the first birthday party that she has gotten to invite kids from school. So this is also the first birthday party I have ever had or given where there will be other people besides close friends and relatives. It is a kid’s birthday party. It should be a piece of cake but there is sooo much to do. Normally we would just throw things together at the last minute, hope for the best and know that our friends and family would still love us regardless. For this party we have been planning for WEEKS!!
First there was a theme to pick out. Olivia wanted a Unicorn themed party. This seemed easy enough. I located a unicorn piñata, I found directions for making a unicorn cake, we could play pin the horn on the unicorn, easy.
Then I took Olivia to buy the invitations. There are no Unicorn invitations. I had found some online but did not order any because I figured if they had them online I should be able to find them in a party store or any of the many stores that have kid party paraphernalia. I was wrong. Fine. We found some fairy invitations. Fairies are part of fantasy as are unicorns right? So it loosely fits the theme.
Then last weekend we went to buy party supplies, plates, napkins, party favors and the piñata. Of course there are no plates or napkins or party favors that have to do with unicorns. So while I am going up and down the aisle with both kids, trying to find something that will “fit” the theme and at the same time keep Jack from mauling everything within his reach and trying to pacify Olivia who now wants a Barbie party, Eric is calming looking through all the party favors by himself. Eric finally pulls himself away from the favors and joins me in my search. I have narrowed it down to some flower plates and some animal plates when Eric says – why don’t you just get some plain color plates? OH MY WORD BECAUSE THERE IS A THEME!!!! He looks at me and says – IT WAS JUST A SUGGESTION, it is not as if the kids will notice the plates anyhow. So I check out the cost of the color plates, they are more expensive then the character plates so we go for Tinkerbelle plates – because she is a fairy – and Scooby Doo plates because we do not want any boy to be forced to eat off of a fairy plate. (Why is it that my daughter can eat off a Spiderman plate but heaven forbid some little boy should be forced to eat off of a “girlie” plate?)
The theme was still intact and then we got to the party favors. While Eric and Olivia were at a play the previous night watching a monkey attack a small girl, I had gone shopping with Jack. I was looking for something cool for a party favor. Earlier in the day, I had found some cool little girl purses online that were on sale at a kids furniture store. Obviously little boys can not carry a purse (again ok to give a gun to a girl…) so I was looking for something for the boys like a purse. What I found were some bugs. They were basically small bug packs that opened up and you could carry things inside them. They were marketed to strap to a bike but they were just cool purse like bugs that were not purses! They were on SUPER clearance so I forgot about the purses and just bought these for all the kids. What do bugs have to do with unicorns? Um, bugs like to crawl on unicorns. Ok so the theme is shot with this but they were too cute and too cheap to pass up. I bought all they had which was 10 bugs.
That leads me to a second dilemma I was having. We invited all the kids from O’s class plus two of her other close friends that do not go to her school. This meant that in all we invited 15 kids plus her teacher. When you include Jack and Olivia that means we could potentially have 17 kids. SEVENTEEN!!!! But the rsvp date was not until Monday the 9th so we had to guess how many kids we would get. Eric, who usually goes with Olivia to the birthday parties guessed 10 (including Jack and O). I thought that was a great guess especially since I had 10 Bugs. I would get up to 12 kids and still have enough party favors. Monday came and only 4 kids had RSVPed. Tuesday one more kids replied. We were up to 5 kids, 7 with J&O. Then yesterday MAY TWELFTH, 4 more kids replied that they were coming. That is 9 kids, 11 with O and Jack. Now this would be fine but we had asked O if she knew who was coming and she had given us the names of like 5 kids. Three of those did rsvp, but two did not. Now most likely those two other kids are not coming but what if they do? I will have 11 kids, 13 with Jack and O. I only have 10 bugs!!!!! I don’t need party favors for my kids but I would need one for that possible 11th kid. So last night I ran out to see if I could get my hands on any more bugs. I searched the store. NOTHING. I finally gave up and decided if these two kids rsvped on Friday, we would just have to forget the bugs and get buckets. (Because unicorns eat out of buckets, or at least they could if they wanted)
I went to the grocery side of the store to pick up ice cream. The aisle was filled with boxes of stuff. There was a sign on the boxes that said “clearance items to push on 5/13/05”. I glanced through the boxes and there in the middle of the aisle were my bugs!!. They were not price but I grab the four that were there, scanned them to find the price, then after I confirmed they were the same super low price I threw them in my cart. So I have 14 bugs now. It had better be enough.
Now all we have to do for the party (in no particular order) is make the map for the treasure hunt, make the cake, fill the party bugs with party favors, fill the piñata with candy, set up the treasure hunt, set up the tables and chairs, set up the pin the horn on the unicorn, decide whether to get balloons, rake up the magnolia leaves, mow the lawn. Did I mention that we are going to a Cinco de Mayo party tonight and that tomorrow Eric has to be at school for an open house? I think I will have at least two margaritas tonight and just hope for the best.