December 2023 - Emmett's 10th Birthday Party

We came into December with a bit of a frenzy.  Both of the boys had decided that they did not care for the May (half-year) Birthday Party idea that we did last year.  They both wanted a birthday party before their birthdays.  This meant that I had to find two separate weekends in December that weren't too busy and weren't too close to the Christmas holiday.  This did not prove to be an easy task.  

But we did it, and the parties went off well enough.

We had Emmett's party first and I really thought I had figured out an awesome way to get out of entertaining a bunch of rowdy kids for an entire party.  We would do a movie party!  This way, we could play some games in the beginning, and then we could settle the kids down in front of a movie and with a bunch of popcorn, and they would zone out until cake time.

How I over-estimated Emmett's friends' ability to focus...and underestimated just how much noise and damage a bunch of wild, 10 year olds could do.

Mistake one:  Expecting the movie to take at least 1 1/2 hours, I made the party 3 hours long.

Mistake two:  With the treats, I did not provide ADHD meds for the 4 kids who are quite obviously un-diagnosed ADHDers.  

The kids lasted exactly, no exaggeration, 6 minutes in front of the TV before they were up, banging on the piano, running through the house and basically bouncing off the walls.  For such a calm, quiet child, nearly all of Emmett's friends have the exact opposite dispositions.  (Just saying, his friend Dalia is the absolute, most ADHD girl I have ever witnessed in my entire life...and I've met a lot of them!  She would get super excited about a new game and within 2 minutes be throwing herself onto the floor begging for something new to do.)

Mistake three:  I ran through my entire game plan, plus extra, all of the off-the-top-of-my-head games that I could think of, one entire hour before it was time for family to come pick up the kids. 

Let's just say...it wasn't pretty.  I finally had to tag out and Robert came in with a couple games that took up the last 15 minutes.  I just couldn't think of another thing to do!   On the bright side, the kids seemed to have a great time, 

And...the pictures turned out cute.  :)

Emmett liked his cake, but he thought it needed...more.

The final product

I had made a strawberry cake as well as a vanilla, so it would match the frosting.  :)

Even if all these kids were from Where the Wild Things Are, they are also very nice and funny and I enjoyed getting to know them a little better.