Kissing Would Be Nice, Yes?

Gracie's 5th birthday party, a purple and green and blue delight in Crawford Bayou. Packing nowhere near the drama of last year's extravaganza, we are, nevertheless, Princess and the Frog-ged out. Who would have ever guessed that 8 little girls would not take more than 5 minutes to glitter up their goody bags? I demand to know who! 'Cause they could've tipped me off. Last year the crowns took about 40 minutes. The ever-popular Freeze Dance as special guest Desi played the piano...

there's just something magical about that 5th year: everyone understands the concept of "party" and "enjoy." Very few guests are puzzled by the concept of leaving their mother's side in order to be one of a mass of giggly girls. And, truthfully, we could have spent the entire 2 hours Freeze Dancing because, baby, the best things in life ARE free.

As ever, the cake was the highlight...such good manners, these little ones. And, score! After everyone had daintily picked at their portions, the piglets who live on Candleglow Street had more than half of the cake to devour their own selves. Tee-hee.

Next to pictures of kids shoving pieces of unnaturally-colored cake into their mouths, my favorite party pix are always of pinata time. The sun never quite broke out behind the clouds, the tykes were all a-shiver, but busting open a paper-mache frog is always a major draw. They'll endure anything for a chance of beating it into a pulp.

The free-for-all!

And so ends what may very well be the last at-home birthday party the Crawfords ever throw: are we just getting old? Inordiately busy? 'Cause even the most basic of celebrations seems to be all that we can handle, and more. Remember the old days of 20+ kids running around our tiny California backyard for Eve, Ty, and Shane? We thank our lucky stars for our Gracie, but she's gonna get that short end of the stick, no fault of her own.