Anna Banana Turns 9

She has never had a birthday party where only friends were invited. This was her year. I tried to get the party held elsewhere, but she wanted it in our condo.

So we planned a homespun birthday party, homemade cake and all. We decided it would be snow-themed.  We planned "snow activities" and sent invites to 6 girls.  We shopped. Jeff and I moved all of the furniture out of the main room in the basement. We devised games and crafts. I baked cookies and a cake. (When the cakes were still in the pans, Anna saw them and started wailing "I do not want that cake! It is so ugly! My birthday is ruined!" Yeah, not a good moment. But she liked the stacked and frosted completed version, as I knew she would. Moral of the story: don't let perfectionist kids with high expectations see the cake before it is in it's final glory).

And then it started snowing. What a nice touch. Then it snowed harder. The girls gleefully threw on their snowclothes, grabbed the sled, and went outside.

It kept snowing higher. Remember, this is New Jersey. Not Syracuse. People don't drive in that kind of weather here. It started looking like Syracuse but of course none of Syracuse's dinosaur-proportioned snow trucks were here to help with removal. So Jeff and I started trying to come up with alternate plans in case the party fell through. We figured the neighbor girl who was playing outside with Anna would come, and one other girl in walking distance, but the others....?

They all showed - every one, making me respect their New Jersey parents for braving the most snow they have seen in awhile to deliver their children to our humble party. It was the LOUDEST party imaginable. Very WILD. The party began with making snowflakes, which Jeff and Molly gathered up and hung downstairs for the "snow" games. We had a "snowman" relay race.  The girls had to run down, grab a basket full of snow gear, run back and get dressed in it (including stuffing themselves with pillows), and run back, take off the stuff, etc. Kudos to Molly for jumping in and evening out teams by playing. What a good big sis. It was very loud, though.

Then we had a "snowball" eating contest, where we hung giant marshallows from the ceiling on twine and the first girl to eat one (with her hands behind her back) won. Have you ever tried to eat one of those giant marshmallows? Disgusting. It was very loud.

Then the pizza arrived and we eat pizza. It was very loud.

Then we went back to the basement for games again. We did pin the nose on the snowman, and you would not believe how popular that was! They begged to do it again?! I thought they might have outgrown that.  Then we had a "snowball" flinging contest where one girl would stand in a masking-taped outline with a paper bag and try to catch the marshmallows her teammates flung at her from plastic spoons. Then we played winter charades (all cards had to do with winter activities). Again, they did not want to stop playing this!  It was very loud.

But time was running out so we had birthday cake and ice cream, and Anna insisted that she open the presents with her guests there because she hates giving gifts and not seeing her friends open them. (The norm here seems to be that kids don't open gifts at their party).  It was, somehow, very loud. 

Then we set up a cookie-decorating table and they all decorated snowman cookies and drank hot cocoa. It was very loud.

Everything was a complete mess so we spent some time putting the house back together. Then we played one of Anna's new games with her and she opened her presents from us - a spy kit, a jump rope rhyme book called "Anna Banana," and a toy bow and arrow set.  She went to bed a very happy nine year old.

And then I sat down and had a drink.