Capes, cake and mayhem

Supergirl, super princess. Two adjectives to describe our children? No. One double-birthday bash theme.

Olaiya, for months, maintained she wanted a Batgirl Birthday. Has she ever seen a bat girl? Heard of Batgirl? (Hold up, is there such a thing? Geeks, let me know.) I have no idea. But in the final hours (read, weeks), I'm guessing with some mama-prompting, it morphed into Supergirl. Supergirl I've seen. Supergirl I've heard of. Supergirl has pink plates that are available at our local party store. Yes.

Naomi on the other hand, was unwavering in her desire for a princess party. Re-branded as Super Princess and we've got a birthday party theme that a mama can roll with. Why is this important? It's not. Truly. Does it make the mama feel cohesive and coordinated and confident in what she's doing? Yes. So imagine my excitement when at the party store Naomi goes for not a Princess plate (i.e. Cinderella, Ariel and the whole Princess posse), but a very cute and whimsy, exuding-superness, princess plate. Love it. There's a picture. Look for it.

Now let me enter a disclaimer: I have two children, both girls, with birthdays a day apart.

When we do a birthday, we do a birthday.

It's one hoe-down, one par-tay, una fiesta. So bring on the cupcakes, let's pick a pinata, we're having a party.

So I do not feel like a crazy person - okay, at times I asked Kurt if I was a crazy person - when I decide that making capes and crowns would be the primary party activity/party favors.

Since children and sewing shears are not the best combination, this had the mama (and the papa - yeah, Kurt's my hero) cutting up lots of pink, purple, red and black felt and fabric. (Black? It's a co-ed party folks - our little neighbor boy probably isn't to jazzed about the pink-on-pink superhero scene.) Thankfully I did not have to come up with patterns of my own - my infinitely craftier and super-resourceful friend linked me up to the coveted cape shape and emblem outlines. The felt worked magically for the super emblems and pinking shears are a sew-less mama's best friend.

Naomi again stood firm in that she did not want a cape, but just a crown. Lucky me, my friend Steph had the hook up for those too! I chose to make a girlier style, but the double-felt action holds up well.

With eldest now in the land of preschool where birthday invitations come by the dozen, this year's guest list had me stressed. Back in the day when it was really a family affair - high on adults, food, beverage and conversation, low on li'l friends, candy, games and crazy - who was coming required little thought.

Olaiya and I chatted through it all, and despite some sadness (on both her and mama's part), we figured out a well defined group of preschool buddies. Naomi Jean was easier:

"Naomi, do you want to invite anyone else?"

"No, just Deli' (Delia) -- She's my best friend."

Read, her only, we-hang-out-with-regularly, same age friend.
Ah, the plight of the youngest.

Ultimately, it was 15 chil'ens at the Lewis household. And it was raining. Hey, we're not scared. Papi did an impressive job of rigging up the pinata in our basement. The party people stood in the stairwell and waited their turn to come to the bottom of the steps to take a crack, and then headed back to the top of the line. After getting through the youngest part of the line up twice, Kurt wisely had the whole crew come down and circle round for the hand-breaking of the pinata. You know, lest a 4 year-old get trampled by children high stepping it down the stairs to reach the loot. That would be bad.

Amazingly, the two hours flew by - we didn't have enough time to finish everything! So that feels good. And Kurt, who was sure that it would all be a disaster, proudly told the mama she did well.

And when doesn't that make a girl feel good?

Am I allowed to say this is my favorite picture? It was hard for me not to make it the one "above the fold". I'm not gonna lie - I'm a sucker for sparkly, organized, colorful palate.

We can't smile any bigger!

A shoe bench, an ottoman, and a coffee table totally make a party table.

Current favorite colors - displayed in cupcake and dress.

Listening to the man with the plan.

Five five year-olds.
Rainbow pinata, rainbow cupcakes - all's well in the coordinated universe of mama's brain.
The whack that broke the rainbow's back.

The only party shot I got of the capes! Few too many kids and projects for me to remember to stop, drop, and photograph. The kids got to pick their cape color, the felt colors for the double layered emblem, and sparky fabric paint color, you know, for that extra pow!.

Bella, Olaiya and Riley: the post-party, church-folks crew.

The girly girls picked the fabric colors and mama coordinated the felt.

Olaiya sporting her party-made crown