Getting Ready to Party

Saturays are always special. They are "my" day with the kids as Kirsty works. We all love it, and we always get to stop by and visit for an hour or so with Kirsty as well. Today in addition to our regular errands of shopping and banking and post office and the library we had an added stop. Dum de dum dum. . . IPARTY! When we stood in the grocery store and I told KC we had to go to Iparty he began to literally rhapsodize about the store. "oh Iparty, I just LOVE Iparty . . . they have so many cool things there. . . remember the party horns? Oh and Ooma do you think there will be balloons too?" I reminded all of them that the purpose of iparty for us today was to get ready for Kirsty's birthday. Technically she turns 50 on Monday but we are celebrating tomorrow. She is somewhat ambivilent about the age thing so we opted not to go with banners of the age, and all the gew gaws that are out there to commemorate 1/2 a century. Instead, the kids picked (and I really do mean kids picked) a butterfly theme. I think honestly that this is so beautiful and cool. The colors are a delightful palette and truly I think Kirsty is at a time of transformation in her life. What better symbol for that than a butterfly? So we have lovely butterfly plates and napkins, a coordinating tablecloth (but not the same pattern as we all thought it made the plates just blend in too much to the table.) We have a garland of butterflies and flowers. We had a 15 minute pow wow on candles. Yep, 15 minutes. I kid you not! With the exception of the fact that KC was briefly entranced with rubber ducky candles, my kids really get the idea of themes for holidays and celebrations and were very particular about the candles and the colors tying to all their other choices. Kirsty says this is because i am not just a parent but a deeply frustrated soul of a party planner buried in the normalcy of being an office manager. LOL She may have a point. I LOVE to celebrate. Life is short. I have known good people who didn't have the times they thought they would. My grandparents. Kirsty's mom. Friends. I don't want to waste times to have joyful memories. Thus the love of parties. At any rate, we are duly armed with a lovely plan for the day, a helium tank and and I have made her cake. Tomorrow I frost and we will decorate and then after church we will have a big feast of Chinese food (K's fave and something of a birthday tradition for her) and then cake and festive fun. If I am lucky I will remember how to post pics!