Claire's Birthday Party

For months Claire has been meticulously planning her Birthday party. She thoughts of every detail, and had incredibly specific plans.

What did she want? For me to go to HomeDepot and get a bunch of wood for the kids to build rafts and float down a river.

Hmm....

We settled on pool noodles and the only river in town I could of that could possibly work: Bellevue Park.

We sent out the invites, and Claire continued to plan. All kinds of plans! She was so incredibly excited!

And then, because it is the first day of summer, a major rain storm came in. Have I mentioned the weather has been horrid????? I AM SO SICK OF THE WINTER WEATHER THAT NEVER ENDS! We have had so many plans ruined because of this stupid weather. I was heartbroken for Claire that her party might be ruined.

On the way to the party, I told her to focus on her friends and how much they care for her and not worry about the weather, whatever happens.

We go down to the park, and there are two buses and about 200 day camp kids. UGH! They took every table (about 20) under the pavilion except two. I ran and grabbed those two. It was exceptionally loud and there were day camp kids EVERYWHERE. But, at least it wasn't raining- yet.

So, in order to try and get the games in that Claire desperately wanted, we did the rafts and raft games first.

While down at the river, the rain started.

The good news: That cleared out all the other kids so that Claire and her guests had the "river" to themselves. It wasn't really deep enough, but Claire took charge and figured out ways for the games to still work. I was very impressed with her improvisation.

The bad news: The rain really started coming down.

We headed back to the pavilion- along with 200 other kids.

We had an incredibly loud lunch, then went ahead and sang Happy Birthday (some of the day camp kids joined in), the rain POURED, and then finally- the day camp kids left! Hallelujah!

Everything that could go wrong was going wrong.

Thankfully, however, we were saved by Claire's all time favorite: The Donut On A String Game.

The kids loved it, and it made the party.

I think this party will be remembered forever: "Remember when we built rafts in the pouring rain and ate donuts on a string?"

Yup- that's Claire's 10th Birthday party.

We survived.