Party Success!

We had S-Boogie's goodbye party today and it turned out great! Thanks to everyone for the great advice, it really helped me out a lot. We had the party this afternoon; it was a good time for everyone and only two people couldn't make it due to family vacations. I got some cheap little coloring books and mini boxes of crayons from the party supply store to have out on the table when kids showed up. Those turned out to be quite popular and they spent a long time coloring. Then we moved on to having snacks. I did yogurt parfaits: I had a few kinds of cut up fruit, some yogurt, and then granola and raisins. One girl filled up a bowl with blueberries and another with yogurt and alternated bites between the two of them. I thought that was pretty funny. We did end up with a fair amount of wasted food, because there were a few kids that took food and then stopped eating after a few bites to go play ring around the rosey. That was a little difficult because then no one else wanted to eat their snacks. Oh well. Not a big deal. Then we decorated foam picture frames; my mom had sent me some popsicle sticks, but I ended up with frames made out of foam and then we used the sticky foam shapes to decorate them. By that time our hour was nearly up, so we played a quick game of "pass the beanbag" and ate cupcakes while parents came to get their kids. We also gave everyone a balloon to take home. There was a minor crisis when everyone wanted the lone pink balloon, but I told people to close their eyes and get a "surprise balloon" and that turned out to be exciting. Oh, and then we realized that the community center has very high ceilings that balloons like to hide in, but thankfully Mr. Fob was there to help us out.

It really was a very fun party and we had very few difficult incidents. My friend stayed to help me out, but we both looked at each other about halfway through and said "wow, this is going really well!". S-Boogie had a blast and I'm really glad we did it. I actually got kind of teary at the end looking at all her little friends and thinking about the fact that we wouldn't be seeing them again after next month. Speaking of which, we almost have a moving plan set up. I'll blog more about it when we get things firmed up, but we're getting closer.

Tonight as I was cleaning up the party, I actually felt thankful for my years as a Primary president. I was called to the presidency when S-Boogie was a baby, and just a few months later called to be president. At the time I was terrified because I'd never spent much time working with kids and I'd never had a leadership calling. But I realized today that I am now much more comfortable with kids. And I've had a lot of practice dealing with them in group situations. When we got home from the party my confidence got all shot to pieces thanks to the new demon of extreme sibling rivalry, unfortunately. S-Boogie's friends got her a sweet present with stuff to do in the car; I put most of it away for later, but I let her open this fun little toy. Little Dude was distraught when she didn't want him to play with it. Thankfully I found enough distractions for him and after he calmed down he realized the extreme pleasure of playing with helium balloons. I love balloons--I think we will have them for all our parties.