Lifting the Hands that Hang Down, Part 2

Have I told you how much I love my ward? It's really tight-knit and service-oriented. I often tell Ben that, when we outgrow this house, I'd rather add on to it than ever move out of the ward. Hmmm. Except we hate our neighbors. So maybe I'd rather just move to a better location within the ward boundaries. Yeah. That might work better for me. But I really am in love with my house.

Anyways. There is this gal in my ward named Sheila. She is just the best. She has a granddaughter named Claire whom she brings to church every now and then. Sadie and Claire love hanging out with each other. Sometimes, when Claire is at Sheila's house, Sheila will bring Claire on over so she and Sadie can play. Once, when Claire was over, she came out of Sadie's room and said, "Where are your dress-ups? Sadie has no dress-ups." I told her that I got rid of them in a Feng Shui attack. She looked at me quizzically and went back into Sadie's room. We did have a box of dress-ups, but at the time, Sadie couldn't have cared less about them. They sat around our house for six months, untouched, taking up space. So I gave them to my friend, whose daughter was really into dressing up. I guess I could let the girls play with my Halloween costumes, but then again, there's the whole more-mess-to-clean-up problem. So I keep them tucked safely away in my storage room. I sell Sadie's Halloween costumes right after she uses them, anyways. And I keep Dylan's costumes for Gage and Micah to use later on.

Yes, I am a Nerdy Organizer.

Okay. So, in late July or so, Sheila came up to me in church and said, "Sadie's birthday is at the end of August, right?" "Yep." "Well, so is Claire's! I have an idea. Since you are so sick, and you will either still be very pregnant or have a newborn at the end of August, let's have a joint birthday party for Claire and Sadie, and let me do all the work!"

She is an angel. I weakly protested, and then said okay. We set the date and planned it all out. All I would have to bring was some sprinkles for cupcake decorating. An angel, I tell ya.

We planned to hold it at the little park behind our house, but right when it started, we had a downpour. We're talking buckets of rain. Around here, it usually sprinkles a little bit, and then clears out after a minute or two. But this stuff continued forever and ever. We all ran to my house to have the party there. When we came running in, Ben gathered up Micah and Dylan and ran away. I begged him to stay and help with the party, but he said no way. He's such a wuss. Gage had just been put down for a nap, so we kept him down there to sleep.

Sheila, just in from the rain:

We started by decorating cupcakes. Lainey:

Claire:

Sadie (the birthday girls got extra large cupcakes to decorate):

Jenna:

The whole group of 'em:

The kids were so cute. Sheila had made ten million cupcakes, so the kids all kept asking if they could make one for their mom, one for their siblings, etc. We let them go hog wild.

Then we sang "Happy Birthday" twice, once for Claire:

(She looks thrilled.) And once for Sades:

Then Sades and Claire decided to sneak into the living room and start opening their gifts. Sadie opened a few gifts intended for Claire and vice versa, so it was kind of a mess at first. But we got it all figured out eventually.

Lainey gave Sadie the cutest Littlest Pet Shop bathroom set, with pretend shampoo, bubbles, a cucumber mask, etc. It was adorable. After I undid all the little parts (packaging on toys is the pits), Lainey wanted to take a closer look, and Sadie was being the biggest butthead about it. She didn't want Lainey to even touch those things. She is the worse sharer in the entire world. I had to sit there and force Sadie to share, and then baby-sit her to make sure she didn't take the toys away from Lainey. Sades was positive that Lainey was going to steal those things. I said, "Sades, when you play with Lainey, do you steal her toys??" "Noooo..." "Then why do you think she'll steal your toys?" No response. Just a pout. Girls. Such drama. Sorry, Megann. I was really embarrassed about that.

Claire's mom, Diedre, gave Sadie this little toy house, and it has become the house favorite around here:

Micah desperately loves that thing, and he goes to great lengths to steal it from Sadie and hide it from her. Maybe Sadie gets her sharing issues from Micah taking all of her toys. I guess I should try to find some slightly more masculine toy house for Micah for Christmas, eh?

The rain finally let up a teeny bit, so we did the pinata action. Sheila made this pinata, homemade, all by herself:

Isn't that amazing? Sheila is actually an artist. That's what she does for a living. Which is why I think she and I get along so well. We both have artists' souls. For the whole week before the party, she and I would call each other to make sure that we were getting everything done and prepared, and she would always correctly pronounce "pinata." With the whole n with the squiggly over it. I think it's cute. Like how I pronounced crepe when I got back from England. For a couple of years, I still referred to crepes as "crepps," not "craypes." But now I'm back to "craypes."

Jenna, trying to hit the pinata:

And Sadie:

And Lainey:

When it wasn't Jenna's turn, she would grab random girls by the hands and swing around and around with them. That is one of my favorite things about her. She loves to swing around and around. Even with kids she doesn't know:

Anyways. Sheila is wonderful. The party turned out really well, despite having to have most of it inside.