Haley's 6th Birthday

Wow! Am I late with this! Over a month! What can I say, that old song lyric "Summertime and the living is easy" is a total crock. Yes, Haley is out of school for the summer, but that just means that we need to keep the two girls perpetually engaged and busy. To not do so is a guarantee that bickering and fighting will break out over toys, crayons, books, etc. (When we do plan something, it drops from a 100% guarantee to "just" a 60% chance.)

After literally months of being constantly corrected when we failed to give her age in fractions ("No, Daddy, I'm 5 and 7/8 years old!"), and months of ever changing party plans ("I want a Lilo And Stitch party theme. No... A garden fairy party theme! No... a puppies and kitties party theme!"), and months of being told about the many things she wanted for her birthday; the big day was finally here. Her actual birthday fell on a Friday, but many of her friends were not going to be able to make it to the party that day. So Nicole took her out for a special mommy/daughter morning at the "salon". She got her hair styled and nails painted. I took a half day from work and came home to take her to see the movie "Up" which we got to watch in 3D. Then the whole family went out to a special dinner at one of her favorite restaurants.

The next day we held the party for her and her friends. Haley had finally settled on a Hawaiian party and we decorated the house with flowers and paper cutouts of hula dancers. Tutu sent her beautiful orchid leis and some loose orchid flowers that we used to decorate the patio and the cake. Originally, we planned to do a water-play party with pools, sprinklers, and slip-n-slides. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and we were not able to do any of that.

Instead, the kids drank tropical smoothies (the paper umbrellas and pineapple slices garnishing the cups were a surprisingly big deal), decorated flip-flop "slippahs" with paint and stickers, did the Limbo (Apologies to Jamaica. Haley really wanted to do this, so for that day, the Limbo was a Hawaiian game), and watched a video teaching the kids a simple hula.

Despite the lack of photographic evidence, there were boys at the party, but they were uninterested in any of the planned activities. I think we've finally reached that age where boys want to do "boy things" and girls want to do "girl things" and the common ground has all but vanished.

Haley had a great birthday weekend. She continues to enjoy all of her gifts, but in classic Haley fashion, has already started talking about Christmas! Sigh.