November 30, 2007~~4:20 p.m.
Elle's sweet sixteen plan...

Well, will ya look at that... I *do* still know how to write.

Life is good. Busy, but good. Elle will turn sixteen this month and I am working hard to plan the party she wants rather than the one I might have wanted. This, it turns out, is a very good thing because I can barely get the husband on-board with what she wants, the sweet sixteen I'd imagined was never going to fly with him. He just keeps saying, "Who? Who is the 'everybody' who needs a big party like this? Who exactly are you talking about? And who decided that sixteen is some big thing anyway?"

Because she has a December birthday, Elle is old-ish for her grade and the first of her close friends to reach this milestone. I don't want to get midway through next year, after everyone else's birthdays, and feel like her party wasn't on par with what the rest of the girls got. (Feel free to read into this that my sixteenth birthday did not go so well.)

Anyway, she picked out bunches of cute pictures of herself growing up and we made an invitation. She's invited 22 kids, nearly half of whom are boys, from 7pm to midnight the Saturday before her birthday. We're renting a helium tank so we can fill the ceilings of the downstairs with balloons and a nacho machine because she was SO excited when she saw it on the party rental site (and, honestly, it'll make for pretty darn easy party food from my perspective). She's planning to have Dance Dance Revolution set up in the family room, Guitar Hero 2 in the office, and (these really are her words) "a quieter area for socializing" in the living room. Yea. I bet it will be really quiet. Uh huh.

The girls, all fourteen of them, are invited to spend the night. I'm eagerly awaiting the news of how many of them will be opting out of the overnight portion of the event. That's a crazy lot of girls given how loud less than HALF that many are at the standard "girls night" sleepovers.

It will be fun though. Well, what I'll be able to hear of it from my banishment upstairs. If she's happy and feels loved ... and nothing gets broken ... and no one goes missing ... or ends up pregnant ... or brings any alcohol or drugs into my home ... or possibly some other things I'm not thinking of right now, but wouldn't want to happen on my *watch* ... then I'll be happy.

I have more to say, but it doesn't seem to fit with this so I'll save it for later...

~Alice