December: Ever's Birthday

Ever's fifth birthday was on Saturday, December 17. I said no party this year. She asked if Nathan could come over for a piñata, and I agreed. Ever also requested that we play baseball (which just means a grown-up throws the ball to her, and she tries to hit it). Seemed like a good idea. She subsequently wanted to add Luc and Amelie Oddou, which was nice. Then Aven Dalton. I figured they would just play outside, and we'd do a piñata and cupcakes and hit the ball around and that was it. When I tried to plan activities for her birthday at the park last year, it seemed as if the kids would've preferred free play. As for the birthday treat, I was interested in trying a recipe for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting, and Ever thought that sounded good.

Other plans for the day included going to the park with Nathan, Trader Joe's frozen mac and cheese for lunch, In-N-Out burgers for dinner, and a Mommy-and-Ever movie night/sleepover. We had recently finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so we decided to watch that, eat treats, stay up late, and sleep on the couch. It sounded wonderful to me, and we were both really excited.

We kicked off the day with Trader Joe's chocolate croissants:

Things deteriorated after that. Aven had another birthday party to go to, so she got to our house right at 11 since she had to leave at 11:30. Candice asked if Dax could come, too. She said after Legoland, Dax thought he and Ever were friends, and he was really excited about her birthday party even though he wasn't invited. Very cute. Nathan was over at our place by the time the Dalton kids came, I think. Susan ended up running late, however, so Luc and Amelie didn't arrive until after Aven was already supposed to have left. And the kids didn't just play as I thought they would. Aven asked at one point whether there were any activities. There was some hitting of the ball, but that wasn't a group activity. We mainly just waited for Luc and Amelie so we could do the piñata and get Aven to her other party. As soon as Luc and Amelie arrived, it was piñata time. Even the piñata was not without difficulties. Nathan tried to get hit (see video), and there were tears at some point over something. This is all I got:

We gave Aven and Dax cupcakes to go. The rest of us sang and ate cupcakes, and that was pretty much it. The cupcakes tasted like chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting, but nobody but Wren liked them:

Ever wouldn't even try one (until the next day). That was sad. 

So the friend portion of the day was a giant bust. Then after lunch the kids went down for naps. (I figured Ever had to nap if she was going to stay up late.) We ended up having to nix going to the park with Nathan. We did In-N-Out for dinner, which took forever because man, can those girls draw out a meal. We dropped Jim and the littles at home, and I took Ever to Target to spend her birthday money. Cikaneks (Nathan) gave her this whole Frozen set - hat, bag, wallet, etc. Ever took the wallet in the bag to Target and wore the hat. It was quite the ensemble:

After extensive deliberations, during which she tried to force me to make her decision for her, she finally settled on a Barbie. 

We didn't get the movie started until late. Ever was exhausted, but she forced herself to stay awake for the whole thing. We had popcorn and treats. After the movie, she wanted to stay up and read, but she ended up puking on the couch. She was on the chaise portion, and the vomit hit the chaise and went down the crack and onto the adjacent cushions. It was disgusting. Jim cleaned it up the best he could, but the stench was unstoppable. Ever eventually passed out while we were cleaning. 

Since a portion of the couch was out of commission, I slept on the air mattress next to the couch, and Ever took the dry part of the couch. Needless to say, it was not the slumber party we'd been dreaming about.

Sunday evening (the next day) the Wilsons came over for dessert. We sang again:

Ever finally tried one of the cupcakes I had made, and she did not like them. We also had what we call "thrusters" - chocolate chip cookies baked in muffin tins with peanut butter cups pushed into the centers. She much preferred those. At least we had something she could eat. 

Ever had told Auntie Trisha that she wanted a remote-controlled helicopter (because Nathan had one). Trish made that dream come true. Nanny and Papa were also generous.

Ever loves playing around with Uncle Jeremy, who is always a hoot:

Once again, the Wilson portion of the birthday was the highlight. 

We had birthday balloons around the house for some time. If it weren't for Nathan's taking and/or popping them, they never would've gone away. I do enjoy this picture of the girls in the birthday-balloon aftermath: