Phew... what a week

As expected, the week was a banner week and I got exactly what I expected.  Hmmm sounds like Hannah Keeley might be right... but that's a blog for another day.

I didn't anticipate during my last blog that we would have another guest in the house this week... he arrived via e-mail and has spent much time in my purse... Flat Stanley.  And compared to a  normal week in my house... it was a good week to be here.  With the trip to U-M hospital and Sammie's birthday, we may even qualify as not entirely dull and boring.  Now I just need to remember to take him  to church with us-- after all it's over 125 years old and is one of the historic landmarks in Jackson... but back to the aforementioned birthday and UM visit.

The trip to U-M was largely uneventful... but in a stroke of genius, I recorded Sean snoring on Tuesday night... it was far more powerful than my impersonation of him snoring and combined with a description of his nocturnal behavior (claiming to swim and coming down to our room or the living room almost every night) helped them take  him a little more seriously.  His tonsils are not significantly oversized and his hearing is just fine.  Instead, they put a 6 inch scope down his nose to look at his adenoids.   Turns out they are indeed oversized.  Hmmm... well, give me a doctorate and let me start charging for consultations, because that is the outcome I expected.  So... we've schedule Sean's surgery for June 24th... and we're going ahead with the sleep study in May (and probably a follow up in July or August).  His Otolaryngologist is concerned that he's active enough at night that he might need to overnight at the hospital after surgery (which at Mott's Children's Hospital at U-M sounds like a freakin' party-- computers, DS games, XBox in your room?!).  Overall, I'm feeling relieved about knowing that a) I was right, b) he's not completely insane or in need of ADD meds, and c) we have a plan in place so there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  And before you think I'm crazy, no it's not my top choice to have Sean need surgery but knowing that he'll feel better (and sleep better) afterwards does bring me some peace!

As to Sammie's party.  It was a success... and by that I mean, no little girls ended up crying at the party... everyone had a good time and things went exactly according to plan and I mean EXACTLY.

The girls made no-sew felt purses while we waited for all the guests to arrive.  It was an excellent way to keep the girls engaged and not have to pull them back form the madness that ensues when they start goofing around.  In other words, fantastic crowd control. My party assistant, Kelly, took charge of the crafts, which was a godsend, because her patience extends beyond mine.  [And Kelly and I have a reciprocity policy on kids parties and have assisted each other for the last few years, since our kids are the same age, so my time will come].

After the purse making, I left Kelly to finish up the straps on the purses and took the girls into the livingroom  where we read a story.  I haven't read a story to a group of girls in quite a while, so it was fun to get to exercise my librarian skills a little.   I used the book to set the tone for the rest of the party.  We're going to have fun and we just aren't fancy ENOUGH quite yet.

We split the girls into 2 smaller groups and one group went shopping, while the other group decorated a mirror with some gemstones.  Sean was our "shop keeper" and set up the store while the girls were listening to the story.  Each girl got to pack their (newly made) purse with a pair of sunglasses, lip gloss, bracelets, a necklace, a plastic ring, and pink feather boa.  It was fun to watch the girls decide (as though this were a really major life decision) which ring, which sunglasses, etc to pack into their purse.

In case your sense of how anal I am wasn't strong enough... I can't stand it when a little girl ends up crying at birthday party over a silly game.  Consequently, we played pin the jewels on the tiara (pretty much like pin the tail on the donkey, but without a winner).  The girls had fun decorating it and seeing where their jewels and feathers landed on the giant tiara I'd made with glitter glue on a sheet of posterboard.Which lead us right into the highlight of the party:  The 2 layer chocolate Fancy Nancy cake from Crazebake!  Afterwards, we wrapped things up with "Fancy Nancy Says" and opening presents.  The pile of presents compared to the number of people at the party (7 other girls) was huge.  Sammie has very generous friends (and family)! And she's still trying to decide which toy to play with next.

Well, I still have a guest in the house... so I should go be a good hostess (and I don't mean Stanley, I mean my mother in law!). And I had several people with their cameras out (a couple of moms hung out during the party, plus Opa and Aunt Alison), but I have yet to see any of them... so I'll be spending this week hunting down those stray photographers and getting copies.