The Big Catch - Or How to Have a Unique Birthday Party

There are times when you have to step back, put societal tradition aside and listen to your kids. Ellie's birthday was one of those times. She has had some birthdays were we hosted large parties. Other times she has shared her birthday with another friend that had a similar date, the two of them celebrating together with their friends. These were fun, but some were also stressful. There were times when the people at the party natural drifted off into clicks, which was hard for Ellie. She could not be with each group an equal amount of the time. When that happened some of the ones who got less of her time got mad. At the end of those parties Ellie was stressed and tired. Her energy had gone too much in that direction. She fixed that by celebrating with just one person for several years. That was enjoyable and caused less stress. This year she was ready for something different. She has plenty of friends who she loves, but who did not get invited. She was still legitimately worried about the clicks and who would fight with whom. She set that aside and decided to invite the people she hangs out with the most. I struggled a bit with it, worried that some of those friends will feel left out, but I had to let her do it her way. It is good to listen to her. As women we have so often been taught to follow rules and tradition, instead of listening to ourselves. While I certainly believe in tradition, I am happy that she has not lost herself to it, like I have from time to time. I took her lead and we all had fun.

Ellie will turn 11 on March 6th, but we will be full swing into the beginning of the biking season, so we decided she could have her birthday party with some of her friends early. This year is was the "88 Llamas," as they like to be known. I picked up the pack from school and headed to Bass Pro Shop. The kids enjoyed the displays, tried out boats, spent lots of time with the fish and had dinner in the restaurant in the store. We brought along the Red Velvet cake that Ellie and I made. We topped it with an old fashioned cooked frosting that she loves and dotted that with dark chocolate M&Ms. Later we went home to watch "Underdog" while munching on stove top popped corn. Each of the kids brought $10 to spend and each one picked out these fun, fluffy giant stuffed fish. She called it a "good catch" as you can see in the photo above. At home they had a fish fight and many of them used their new catch as a pillow once they conked out. At home even the dog got into the action!