Party Party!

That's right, two parties in one day!

First came Manolee's birthday party - though her birthday was in early February, I scheduled it to the end of the month so that I could .... throw PeeWee a surprise party right after! Since his birthday is March 1st, having the two parties together in one day seemed to make sense, especially not to give anything away to PeeWee in planning his surprise.

Manolee had invited 9 kids and it was 100% turnout. I baked up a bunch - more to prepare for the evening's surprise party, but still, if there is one thing I learned from throwing kids' parties so far is that very little is consumed during the party EXCEPT candies - the fraises tagadas are the first to go, followed by the Dragibus and gummy bears. 

Then at 6pm the moms started arriving to pick up the kids and I sent PeeWee out to his friend J's house, under the pretense that he needed help in putting up a shelf. PeeWee is always game to help out a friend in need, so he went off without questioning. Then it was a mad rush to get the house ready for the next party - getting the wine/champagne bottles out of the washing machine, laying out platters previously prepared and hidden in the cupboards, making sangria, putting stuff in the oven.  I had asked two friends and my MIL to bring some quiches and desserts, and I wish I had taken a picture of the actual buffet platter, because it was enough to feed 100, easy. My MIL, who I thought was making me one quiche, came with 4 enormous ones, each the size of a 27-inch plasma TV screen. 

His friends started arriving on time, which was a surprise to me, but I guess people do take surprise parties seriously. It was all I could to to stop laughing because it was all coming together after a month or so of planning it all. Then a phone call from J saying that they were on their way, and after about 10 minutes, the birthday boy arrived. The following picture should say it all:

I had tears in my eyes when he actually came in and realized what had happened. 25 or so of his best friends in one room (100% turnout!) - I think he was actually quite surprised and shocked even. Hanaya told me later that she had tears in her eyes too - she had been great by the way, keeping this secret for over a month (we had not said anything to Manolee, who is too young to keep a secret, so she was in for a bit of a shock too when after her party, she realized that another party was being prepared for someone else!)

Then we packed off the kids with my MIL and the party got under way. It really was a lot of fun, and it went on for much longer than I expected - since most people had babysitters back at home, I thought they would stay only till about midnight or so, but we ended up dancing and partying until 3:30am! What fun! And what a way to start PeeWee's 40th year! Hee!