Phew!

Jane's birthday and party are over! But boy, what a stress!!! Yesterday I ended up taking all seven kids with me to the grocery store to shop for her party, so came home with way too much candy LOL. Was going to bake the cake, but it never happened till after midnight. I kept thinking of all the stuff that still needed to be done, but did get almost nothing accomplished. I hadn't even checked whether we had all the presents, and we ended up making an emergency run to Coconuts to pick up a Sailor Moon DVD for her. Oh, and we forgot to put up the decorations, which we ALWAYS do the night before. I felt so bad about that, although Jane was fine with me doing it today.

Last night, at 11pm I realized how much I had overscheduled today. Sander had to go into the office early, so couldn't help with the swimming lessons drop off. So it was birthday presents early, boys swimming lessons at 9am, girls swimming lessons at 9:30am, and LLL evaluation meeting at 10am. Baking and assembling a cake, getting ready for birthday party at 3pm. Hadn't baked the cake, hadn't vacuumed the floor (needed for LLL babies), hadn't cleaned the bath room. And it was almost midnight. Finally did get the cake in the oven, Sander vacuumed, and I cleaned the bath room. But my friend in the Tons Of Kids chat convinced me that I should cancel the LLL evaluation meeting, since I was soooooooooooooo overwhelmed, I spent most of that chat crying, which isn't good I guess.

Ended up going to bed at 2am, woke up at 6am, the lack of sleep doesnt' help I guess. I canceled the LLL meeting, which helped a bit, although I felt really bad about canceling so late :-( I know they understand, but I felt bad nonetheless, I am so used to just doing things instead of being overwhelmed. But canceling the meeting gave me time to prepare for the party. I considered skipping the swimming, but I had promised to pick up one of Jane's friends there, so she could be at the party. So I couldn't skip that.

Two friends came over early so they could help me set up, and one of them even cleaned my aquarium!!!! Wow! Had been wanting to do that for the last 2 weeks or so. And I got the cake assembled in time, it actually looked good too, but haven't uploaded any pics yet. It was a 'dinosaur cake with vulcano' as requested.

I spilled green food coloring all over myself and the kitchen floor.
Tara threw up in the hammock after eating too much frosting.
One of the young guests had a pee accident at the top of a slide.
We had at least 2 cups of soda falling over.
Tim fell out of the hammock and scraped his cheek and shoulder.
But the kids had a great time.

And I enjoyed having friends over, so that was a good part of the day, but the getting ready stress was just crazy. Blech!