Josie invited 12 of her closest friends for a pizza, movie and sleep over party. Nearly everyone of them could attend which made for a BIG party with lots of preteen girls. This preteen stuff is intense but like her Seattle friends, everyone got along and no one was excluded.
Benjamin invited his best buddy, Clayton, which was advantageous for everyone.
We had made a vegetable tray and prepped pizza toppings and made room for nearly a dozen sleeping bags. Her friends arrived in all their glory around 6PM and
then things started getting LOUD. Benjamin and Clayton ate quietly together on the deck rather overwhelmed by all the girl energy surrounding them. They ran off to the backyard to play soccer while Josie and her friends made up their pizzas, we cooked them and they all ate on the deck together. After pizza, the boys, including Marty, played cards safely tucked
away in Benjamin's room while the girls played games, set up their sleeping stuff, opened gifts and then the requisite happy birthday song and fruit crisp.
They watched the movie The Martian and then miraculously they fell asleep by 11PM. Apparently a small group of girls stayed up until 1AM but I didn't hear a peep until the morning and Josie wasn't one of them so I didn't care too much. Josie was awakened by one of her friends who she had asked to set an alarm for 5:30AM which coincides with the time of her birth. She was born at 8:30 PM Seattle time but the time change made this request less than convenient.
Josie and I had pre-made blueberry muffins for our breakfast and we ate those along with pancakes, fruit (LOTS of fruit) eggs and tea. The girls (and the boys) devoured breakfast and then went right back into playing games.
Around 11 Marty took the boys to a cool park on the other side of Berlin and Josie and I walked down to the local paint your own ceramics place to finish off her 12th birthday
party with a bit of art. The girls took it very seriously and we were there for over 2 hours as they meticulously painted their plates, pigs and cups.
All in all birthday party #12 was a success and I always feel so good and accomplished when it is over. I really wonder how many more of these large friend parties I will get to host. As much work as it is, and it IS a lot of work, I know my days of doing them are numbered. So SO happy to have this big girl in our lives!!
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She was going to lie down a few minutes
and write in her journal.
VERY loud snoring within minutes! |
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