Lessons from my girl's birthday party

She's almost practically eight now.  No longer my wee bundle of pink sweetness and not quite ready to toss me to the wolves.  It's a great age (except when she melts down when I do something wrong like telling her she can't play with paint in her bedroom - but I digress.) It worked out better than I expected and I thought I'd share my rare words of wisdom with y'all.

 

Yesterday I did something my 25 year-old self would never have expected me to do - hosted a very girley pedicure party for my daughter.  So begins the lessons.  You don't have to be tough to be strong.  Go ahead and have colourful nails, wear dresses, allow the guy to open the door for you.  If it makes you happy, you are being true to yourself.  I will not say "Careful you don't chip a nail!", while you hang upside-down in your party dress on the climber after eating your third cupcake.  That's the kind of freedom my 25 year-old self wanted for her daughter.  Laura's the one who loves fixing things with power tools and wearing nail polish while she does it.  That's my girl. 

Girlfriends are gold.  My DH is out of town but I threw the party anyway.  My sister/best friend and Allison/BFF were there for me.  It was like having clones only way better and more fun.  I opened the door in my pre-party panic, grunted something in "stress-ese", and things magically happened.  Tables were set, photos taken and hyper little girls were entertained.  I enjoyed the party as much as Laura.  I am so thankful for wonderful friends and want my children learn the value of friendship early in life.  I hope I lead by example and she finds many BFFs that are more than skin-deep. 

Don't sweat the small stuff.  I usually make or order some kind of awesome cake for birthdays.  I've had fun with this over time but something has to give when the to-do list is running off the page.  So we had cupcakes, from a mix, with sprinkles.  Ta da!  Not spectacular but it doesn't matter - it's sweet cake stuff and there were no complaints (except from prima-donna girl who complains about everything so all I heard was "blah-blah-I don't do sweet things - blah" and I don't think she's BFF material for my girl anyway.)  There was purple and pink and the fruit went just as fast.  Priority was the pedicure part and giggly time with the friends so that's where I put my effort.

Finally, Pedicure parties need to be for grown-ups too.  It was awesome!  I had a local esthetician come over and do the thing with her colleague.  She brought all the gear including the lovely zero-gravity chairs with her.  We set up a spa room and the girls chilled out with peaceful music (I'm going to put that on ALL the time), vanilla candles, warm towels on their faces with cucumbers on their eyes, while their toes got painted a rainbow of colours.  Now I need to book one of these parties for me and my friends.  Any takers?