The Salmon Family: April 2014

Happy 7th birthday, Margaret Julia.

Seven. Whoa.

I know, I know. There are people reading this who's children have celebrated their 17th birthday. Or 27th. Or 37th (hi, mom!) But today my girl turns seven. And that's huge for me.

As I watched her working on homework one night last week, chewing on her pencil eraser (she totally gets that from me) I was kind of overcome with the realization that she is growing into a GIRL. I mean, duh... I always knew she was a girl... but all of a sudden she's not a toddler, not a preschooler, not even a kindergartener... she is this... PERSON. This little lady with ideas and stories and dreams. She can read chapter books. She can make her own bed. She answers the phone on her own. She likes to have "alone time" in her bedroom to write in her journal. When did this happen?

I always, always, always hoped and dreamed about being a mommy. I have been blessed... times three. In all my dreams, however, I was holding a baby or pushing a toddler on a swing set, or snuggling a teeny one in a rocking chair. I never really thought past that part... yet, here it is, staring me in the face. Right now we're in that super spot where Barbies and Disney movies are still fun. She still wants mom to chaperone her field trips. And she can be easily persuaded into wearing the clothes I so lovingly choose for her, even when she has other ideas. Soon enough we'll be entering the world of makeup, and bras, and boy bands, and girl drama.... and while that scares me something fierce, I can't imagine a better kid to take this crazy journey with.

I made you, but you made me a mom. Happy 7th birthday, Mags. I love you with every part of my heart!

Maggie chose to have a birthday party this year... and wanted to invite her entire class. After tossing around lots of different party ideas that would be fun for both girls AND boys... we came up with an "art" theme... and had so much fun! (side note: my vote was for a tie-dye party, but Maggie was just not having it... Thank GOD because it rained all day today..... and that was not a project I was willing to take on INSIDE my house!)

We made the invitations a few weeks back. As complicated as they look, they were actually quite simple. The words were printed on white cardstock and we simply cut them out in a "palette" shape. Maggie and Lucy fingerpainted some colors on them, and we added a brush. Originally, we had planned to stick a real paintbrush in slits in the invitation, but the dollar store by us didn't have the package of cheap brushes I wanted, so we moved on to Plan B. Oh, and my favorite part of the invitations? The fact that I printed my parents' phone number as an RSVP instead of ours. I blame the anesthesia from my foot surgery. Duh.

The first few days after Maggie passed them out, a handful of RSVPs trickled in. We had about 8 (with Maggie and Lucy) the day before the RSVPs were due, and I was feeling pretty good. Then.... there were more. And more. And more. Three MORE kids RSVP'd in the 2 days leading up to the party. In the end, we had 18 kids. But no sweat, I've worked with larger groups of first graders... for longer periods of time. Maggie and I worked hard all week to prepare for her party. I'm not gonna lie. The "inner teacher" in me had a total plan in my head of how the party was going to flow. We set up one big group project first, then had a handful of other "stations" for the kids to work on while the big project was drying. Then cake, presents, and BOOM! time to go home.

And... surprisingly, everything went pretty smoothly! I did learn a few things however:

* Boys play different. Rough, different. Girls are loud and silly. Boys like to wrestle and jump off furniture. This is new to me.

* Kids love juice. Although I didn't take a picture of it, I bought enough "creative juice" bottles for each kid to have 2. They were all gone in the first hour. Holy crap. Next time, I'll put enough out for every one to have one, and save the rest for cake.

* Kids freakin' love spin art. I spent around $10 on a spin art machine at Toys R Us to use as a "station." I think everyone would have spent their entire time making them. When we surveyed the kids during cake time, 90% of them said this was their favorite activity. So... need an easy, gender-neutral birthday gift idea for the 5-8 year old set? Spin Art machine.

* I miss working with first graders. Today was fun!

Here are some party highlights:

Rainbow cake! I was too lazy to frost the sides.

I think it was more fun this way, anyway!

Station 1: Playdough! We made a homemade batch on Saturday, and divided them up into little containers (10/$1- thanks, Dollar Tree!) There was food coloring and glitter for the kids to add to make it more "fun!"

Snacks! I (conveniently) planned the party for AFTER lunch... snacks were "rainbow" fruit, rice krispie paint brushes, and pretzel "pencils." I had cute juice bottles labeled "creative juice" but took the picture before I took them out of the fridge. Oops.

Rice Krispie paint brushes! I'll admit, I cheated here, too. The treats were store bought. We only dipped them and added the stick. Shhh.

Self-Portraits. Thank goodness for Google Images of "blank picture" frames!

The super popular "spin art!"

"Let's Draw Maggie" game- the kids were blindfolded and told to draw a different "part" of the birthday girl. The end result was ridiculous!

Party favors! The original plan was for a set of Crayola watercolors... but we found these for $1 each at OfficeMax... so there was a quick change of plans!

Table set and ready for the big paint project. Each child had their initial to paint, and then an 8X10 canvas to decorate. We glued their letter to the canvas when dry. In all the chaos, I never took any pictures of the finished products- but they turned out great!

Art Easel Greeting

Hard at work. I took a million and one pictures of the kids working all afternoon, but don't feel comfortable posting other people's kids on my blog. Trust me when I say they worked hard and were paint-covered!