Flip Flops

No, this will not be a post about the upcoming Presidential election.



Instead, it will be about my daughter's 7th birthday. She said she wanted a cake that looked like a pair of flip flops.

I, on the other hand, had no idea the "flip flop" concept would end up meaning so much more.

About a week before her birthday, she informed me that she wanted a HUGE birthday party with all of her friends. Now for one thing, she hasn't figured out that I'm WAY too uptight and get myself far too stressed out over something like throwing a big birthday party.....in under a week.....for 20 kids. There's themes, party favors, games and creativity involved. Not to mention, there wouldn't be enough time to get a refill of valium. So, I talked to her a few times about how it would be better to wait until next year so we would have more time to think about it and plan. I even used it as a teaching opportunity by introducing her to words like "ettiquite" and "neurotic".


On Monday, she mentioned to me that she told her friend that it was her birthday on Wednesday. Her friend told her she HAD to have a party. They decided that each of them would go home and make 10 invitations to be handed out the next day.

Again I explained to her the proper ettiquite of party invitations and that one day's notice was simply not enough. She was still intent on making her own invitations and sat herself down at the table for the rest of the evening busy at work making her own invites. She had my husband write on the inside "Come to my party at 7 pm." He thought he was just humoring her. Surely she wasn't REALLY going to hand them out. She was so very proud of her finished product. I remember making a mental note that I needed to make sure to check her backpack so that they didn't end up at school the next day. Of course, that thought disappeared as fast as it came.



She came home from school and said that one of her friends said that she couldn't come unless she got a "real" invitation. Lauren, of course, got upset with me for not telling her about making "real" invitations in the first place. ( I am now banging my head against that same wall that I must have been talking to during my hundred conversations about this very thing ).



I had two moms call and inquire about "the party". That's when I think I realized this was not going to end well. No, there is no party. Yes, I would have sent out a "real" invitation that would say more than just "come to my party" and crayon pictures of flowers and hearts written on a torn out piece of spiral notebook paper. Those of you reading this who received one, maybe you could loan yours to me so that I can post a picture.



So Wednesday night came and so did this:

You should have seen my husband and I run into our bedroom wandering aimlessly saying things like, "Freak!/What the freak?/What are we supposed to do NOW?/What the heck?" How could we come up with a few extra kids on such short notice? I started thinking of the families I knew who had a bunch of kids. "Call the Seeleys. They have four. Then the Booths. They are just down the street and have a good 4-5 that I'm sure they would loan me for an hour or so. That would be enough to make it look legit, right?" I finally had to face the reality that it was just too late. The next door neighbor friend mentioned she even wore a shirt with flip flops on it. Somehow that just made it all even worse.

Lauren was all grins that someone showed up to her party and Jack said something like "I wonder who else is coming to our party?"


Great. I was already starting to take inventory to make sure I had enough clean forks in case some more unexpected guests showed up.

So, she got to hang out with us and a few grandparents. I sure know how to put the "flop" in flip flop. Thank heavens I don't have to do another birthday until next March.

What lesson did I learn? To never underestimate the determination of a child.