Happy Birthday, Diva

Our rain has turned to snow, just like the weatherman said it would.  Why did he pick today for the one day a year he's right?  Just kidding.  Sort of.

Diva's birthday party was so much fun, but half the girls we invited did not show up.  Now, why?  Why would you blow off a kid's birthday party after telling her you would be there?  I imagine one or maybe two could be sick, but four out of seven?  With no phone call?  The unfortunate part is we held the party at a local skating rink, and we had to pay for a minimum of eight kids.  Two of the kids' parents came with little siblings in tow, and had we known those four kids weren't going to show we could have substituted the little ones.  Instead, the parents paid for the little ones to skate. Diva's big sister showed up and wanted to skate, so we were able to accommodate her.  Still, we had three unused wrist bands to turn in at the end of the party.  Sigh.

 

The kids all had a good time, though.  Walker strapped on some roller blades and hit the rink with the kids.  I wanted to skate, too, but when my mom booked the party she put me down as the host, so I had to run the show.  I still want to go skating.  Maybe Walker will take me some weekend.

Diva, as the birthday girl, got to spend a minute in the cash cage.  It's like one of those money machines you see on TV except they use "point certificates" instead of actual cash.  Diva grabbed at everything that whirled past her, and in the end she got 65 points, worth.....a small pile of candy and junk.  She was thrilled.

The skating rink provided pizza, popcorn, soda, and slushies.  We also dined on cotton candy - pink AND blue, thank you very much! - and cup cakes.  The kids should be coming down from their sugar high sometime later today.  I expect there will be a few crabby attitudes as the sugar crashes come on.

Diva got some nice gifts.  I gave her an ITunes gift card.  I taped it to the inside of the lid of an empty box.  I figured Diva would look in the box and think it was empty and get all confused.  Not this kid.  She took the lid off and flipped it over on to the table, revealing the gift card just that quick.  Joke number one was a bust.  Along with her gift card we gave her my IPod Shuffle, which I bought myself during cancer treatment but never took out of the box.  The kid was hoping for an IPod, so it was win - win.  She got her wish and I got rid of a bit of clutter from my desk. But you know, I can't just hand her the IPod. No fun in that. So I took another box, the same size, and put the IPod in the bottom.  I covered the whole thing with Hershey kisses.  I figured she'd think she got a box of chocolate for her gift.  Not this kid.  She said, "Nobody would give me this much chocolate!" and she started digging.  It took about a second and a half for her to find the IPod. Joke number two was a bust, too.  It's official.  I am not smarter than a fifth grader.  Or even a fourth grader.  Sigh.