Unbirthday Unparty

It's not Jade's birthday and we're not having a party. See 5 out of 6 of our birthdays fall within 5 weeks of each other. Of course this 5 week span is during the holiday season from right before Thanksgiving to right on through Christmas. Except for Jade, whose birthday is in June. So partially because most of our birthdays come at the busiest and most stressful season of the year and partially because we're retro slacker parents, we don't do big birthday parties. Except when you turn 10. This was my number 1 brilliant friend Kirsten's idea.

So this year Jade can have any kind of party she wants to celebrate her double-digitness. Now Jade is my child who never asks for anything. Except for pets. She asks for lots of pets, but nothing else. All she wanted for her birthday was to have a sleepover with her best friend in Morocco, Lydia. The sad part of the story is Lydia is moving to the states next month. So we decided to have an early unbirthday. And with only two girls it's very unparty, cause don't you need like 3 people to make it a party? So here's my quest to give the girl who never asks for anything the best unbirthday unparty ever.



Every unbirthday unparty needs ungoody bags. As you may have guessed, there is no Party Superstore here to get these items. I'm not even sure what to get because Lydia and Jade are not your average girls. When they are together they like to play school, organize their rooms (this is purely Lydia's doing, Jade well, she takes after her mother), practice piano, craft and compost. Yes, they LOVE to compost! Meal worm goody bags? Tempting. I'm pretty sure I could get them here. But, I don't think Lydia could take them on the plane. Ok, I've got nothing. So I go on Target.com and order some hello kitty nail polish and lip balm out of pure not-knowing-what-else-to-get-ness. Two days before the unparty I get a notice that these items were returned, rejected by the receiving post office. See somethings you can't ship overseas like very, very dangerous lip bomb. Frantic for unparty ungoody bag items I head to Marjane and start buying stuff. And I find: pink post its, cute erasers, colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, cat notebooks pads (hoping to tap into their pet lust), magnifying glasses (so maybe they can find their own meal worms in the compost pile) and cute pink carrying case. SAVED!



Almost 10 year old girls like to plan. So Jade has it all written out and posted on the fridge so we don't forget. As if this is even possible. She calls Lydia to long discussions about the possible things they could do. Oh, yeah? What ARE we going to do? I'm talking to my friend Sara worried that the girls can not compost for 24 hours straight. She has an ice cream maker. Would the girls like to do that? BINGO! They would LOVE to do that. Brilliant friend moment number 2. Now what am I going to do with my other 3 kids? Because really the best gift I can give Jade is 24 sibling-free hours with just Lydia. Enter brilliant friend number 3, Bobbie. All 3 of my other kiddos can go to her house for a sleepover over there with her 4 kids! Yes, someone wants them or is kind enough to convince me that having 7 kids at her house for an entire day and night would be "fun". Then the day before the party brilliant psychic friend Laura, who doesn't even know about the unparty sends a box of every different flavor oreos perfect for makng cookies and cream ice cream which is exactly the kind the girls want to make! I wish there was a lottery I could play here, cause I'm feelin' lucky!



We have the plan, we have the ungoody bags. We exchange the kids. I say a prayer for Bobbie 'cause I know that I've got the best deal in town. I've got 2 of the sweetest almost 10 year old girls and no distractions! So we take them to lunch.



And go bowling.



And a trip to the candy store.



Then home where Lydia gives Jade a bff necklace she made and a jewelry box. And I gave them their goody bags and they loved them.



They organized their ungoody bags and played school. Until that morphed into FBI. They made cool fingerprinting cards.



And took mugshots for FBI ID badges.



Very realistic mugshots...




They watered the garden, the lawn, the compost pile and each other.



The looked at the bugs in the yard with their new magnifying glasses.




And they danced to Jade's new wii Just Dance game that miraculously arrived from Target.com in time. Which leads me to why is shipping electronics not nearly as dangerous as the lip bomb?



They crushed oreos to make the ice cream.



They watched it swirl.



Before they hunkered down in bed watching A Wrinkle in Time that we downloaded. (There ain't no convenient Blockbuster to go get the hottest new movie release here.) And ate the best cookies and cream ice cream ever.



The next morning they ate their smiley happy face breakfasts with happy smiley faces.

Things I learned today:

It takes a village to make an unbirthday. Thank you to my village. You know what they say, you are the company that you keep. And I must say, I am keeping some inspiring company and so is Jade. To our friends across the world and to those like Bobbie and family and Lydia and family in this post who are moving away from us this summer, no matter how far apart we are, we are still a village. So today find a village people song, just dance and we can be together in our own village if only for a couple minutes!