Any day but today, really. Please?
We watched the rain through the window as we prepared for the party. My mom sang the 'rain rain go away' song with the girls a half-dozen times.
But alas, our repeated pleas did not work and boo-hoo, it rained on Kate's birthday party day. As tragedies go, I admit. This is clearly a minor one.
The girlies were not able to play in the butterfly land we created in the backyard. (Oh, how I had visions of little girls, running and playing and fluttering with butterfly wings among paper lanterns in the woods!)
And the 6 hours I spent a few weekends ago, stenciling circles of butterflies on the inside of the playhouse? No one saw them either.
Charlie, our next door neighbor's dog, who was so hoping to make a guest appearance at the party, was not able to. (I love Charlie. But figured that giant muddy Bassett hound paws probably weren't the best idea for the newly scrubbed floor.)
The butterfly pinata is still in my foyer, unsmashed, because we couldn't go outside to bust it. The sidewalk chalk butterfly was washed away, and the girls will now have an entire summers' worth of sidewalk chalk to decorate the driveway. And I now have 8 pink butterfly nets that have gone unused, as we couldn't play 'butterfly badminton' as I had planned.
I allowed the rain, and the rush of all the last-minute party preparations, to make me a little crabby for at least a full hour before the party. Nevermind that I was only behind with the party stuff because I chose to spend more time gawking at other parties on Pinterest than I spent actually preparing for this one.
I tried to put Kate's fancy birthday crown on her about 15 minutes before the party started, and she sunk down onto the ground, screeching as if I had threatened not to feed her for the rest of her life. She protested so much that I threw the crown on the floor like an 8 year old and said "Fine, Kate. Fine. DON'T wear the fancy crown. I don't care. I can't believe this is how you act before your special butterfly party!" or something stupid and childish like that. Trying to guilt a 3-year-old child into a photo opp.
Luckily, we are both too quick to be irritated but are also both pretty quick to snap out of it. So a few minutes later, we were all making the best of the rainy day by bringing sunshine inside.
As I have discussed ad nauseum before, I spend a ridiculous number of hours looking for birthday party ideas. So it's a happy day when I can finally see it all come together.
The butterfly cake (a cheapie Kroger cake on which I added some $8 edible butterflies from Etsy!)....
The toadstool cupcakes (I couldn't bare the thought of the 12-step Pinterest tutorial on more realistic looking toadstool cupcakes. So I took the lazy route and added white chocolate chips as polka dots on Kroger cupcakes.)
The hedgehog food (one little guest told me that hedgehogs don't go with butterflies. Contraire, monfraire...this was woodland butterfly party, and hedgehogs totally go with a woodland theme. And besides, Sedgie, a hedgehog, made an appearance at the party and we had to make him feel welcome.) And no, I have no idea if hedgehogs eat acorns or raspberries. Yes, they're probably too big for a hedgehog's mouth. But I think hedgehogs eat bugs and, well, ick. So for the sake of this birthday bash, yes, hedgehogs eat raspberries, strawberries and acorns.
A note to anyone considering making hedgehogs out of donut holes: Powdery ones look so much cuter. But icing does NOT stick to them. Power to the Pinterest momma who was able figure out that ridiculousness. Hence, the dark brown on dark brown on dark brown hedgehogs, whose faces you can barely see. Hey, the fact that they disappeared completely says that at least they tasted good.
The excessive butterfly decorations....
Ella and Kate were ecstatic when Hallie, our neighbor, the first guest, arrived...(she and the other 'big girls' of the neighborhood are all so sweet to our girls. We're so grateful for that!)
Face painting and balloon-animal making helped keep the kiddos busy. (Thanks to Erica Carlson, the best kids' entertainer EVER!) They didn't seem to miss the fact that they couldn't flutter around the butterfly fantasy land out back.
The toilet paper coccoon making contest was a hit, even if we had to play on the backporch...and even if I didn't get to see the girls burst free from the cocoons and 'fly' in the backyard.
And, I don't have photos of the playroom...but from the disaster state it's currently in, I can tell you they had a blast there, too.
Kate the great couldn't eat chocolate cake in the sunshine...but she seemed pretty happy to eat her chocolate toadstool cupcake on a picnic blanket in the front room.
I don't have any close up photos of Kate the Great blowing out her candles, but a neighbor took a brief video. It's only 10 seconds long. But oh, how it hurts my heart, I love it so much. Kate blows out the candles on her toadstool cupcake, with all her little friends surrounding her...and then smiles this big, proud smile when she's done, looking around at everyone, scanning the room with her big brown eyes, knowing she's the special birthday girl. Then she claps and squeals and her little shoulders rise to meet her ears, and jumps up and down in her chair. Precious.
I was watching those moments in 'real life, up close, as I held Kate's cupcake and she blew out the candles. But on busy days like this, with lots of guests and lots of little people and so much visual stimulation...sometimes even the sweetest little moments can get lost in the clutter of my mind.
I am obsessive about taking and sharing photos for just that reason. These moments of my little girls' lives...I am so aware that they are fleeting. It seems like just yesterday, my little Kate the great was just coming home from the hospital. And the moments between then and now? They're mostly one, big, beautiful blur. It's this blog, and my photos, some hand-written journals in which I occassionally write... that give me the gift of remembering it all. How beautiful they are at every stage. How their smiles and how the funny things they say and do make me feel.
I didn't get to put the girls to sleep tonight. Grandma is in town for the party and they retired to her room to watch movies. As I was uploading these photos, they fell asleep. My second (albeit extraordinarly minor) disappointment for the day. I had so wanted to lay in bed with Kate-Kate, maybe read her one of her butterfly books, ask her about her favorite parts of the party, thank Jesus that she's healthy and safe, and watch my birthday girl fade off to sleep.
But the silver lining is that I can do all of that tomorrow. A blogpost that I read a few days ago, written by a mom I've never met, reminds me of just how beautiful of a silver lining that is.
The mom and her beautiful little girl, Faith Pruden, live in our community. Faith died of brain cancer last year. Just a few days ago, as I read her mom's blog for the fourth or fifth time since I happened upon it last year, and tears again streamed down my face.
My heart aches for Faith's brave mommy, for her family, and for the loss of a beautiful little girl whose time here on earth was cut far too short.
During moments like this, when I have experienced such a fun and special day with my little girls, Faith's story ruminates in my heart. Her beautiful photo on her mommy's blog reminds me of just how delicate and fleeting life is. And how important it is that I make the most of every second. Not just with butterfly parties and hedgehog watermelons, marking special birthdays.
I can't really find the right words to express what my heart feels every time I think of Faith's story. I sent her mother a brief email and told her how her strength inspired me. She wrote back, thanked me for the note, and said that emails like that help her, because the road she is walking is a very lonely one. Her courage and her little girls' face are front and center in my mind right now, they tug on my conscience as I use words like 'tragedy' in the same sentence as 'rain...' or speak of 'disappointment' for not getting to kiss my birthday girl goodnight.
Today, the rain dashed our plans of setting free two Monarchs we have watched turn from caterpillars to cocoons to butterflies. We'll set them free tomorrow, hopefully in the sunshine, as we celebrate my little girl growing another year older. And when we do, I'll be thinking of sweet Faith Pruden and I'll say a little prayer for a family I've never met. I'll accept that there is much about this short and amazing life that I will never understand, I'll sqeeze my little girls and I'll once again be reminded how thankful I am for every rainy and sunny moment of this very grateful life.
