I have spent the past few weeks fighting guilty. Guilty because we weren't planning a birthday party for Alexis, and guilty for even feeling guilty about not having a birthday party for Alexis.

We don't have family near by, so we've never had a birthday party for her. In my mind, One and Two Parties are for the attendees. The kids don't care, so if you spend any money, you're really only doing it for the grown-ups you invite. Three starts to walk that line. Alexis would have enjoyed having her friends together for a party, and it would have genuinely been for her.

But.

But, our house is way too small for more than two or three kids. If you add in the adults that come with those kids, you're way past capacity. When I scoped out places that I knew Alexis would like, and that would help with the whole entertaining a group of Tiny Terrorists thing, we were looking at a minimum of $400. I could not, at all, justify spending that kind of money on a party for a kid that may or may not even remember it. On top of that, she certainly would have spent most of the party hiding because of all the strangers that would end up being involved once the kids drug their adult supervision along.

Just thinking about what could be done with all that money was enough for me to be convinced that there was no reason to have a party this year. I didn't even feel guilty about it, until I realized I didn't feel guilty. That's when I started feeling guilty that I DIDN'T feel guilty.

Nobody ever said the chaos that goes on in my head makes any sense. It doesn't.

So, instead of a party, Alexis got a full day of The Royal Treatment. I woke up her with over a dozen balloons. If you ever want to have a REALLY good morning, try that trick. Balloons first thing in the AM? A HUGE win. Lots of giggles and grins and "thank yous" and wide-eyed glee.

After the balloons came The Great Cupcake Reveal. I like to send treats to daycare for Alexis' birthday, and this year she got to pick the decor. I thought she would go for penguin cupcakes, but she went with her other love, panda bears. I stayed up until 2:00am the night before getting a kazillion of those things made. It was totally worth it because the second Alexis saw them she GUSHED.

Then came the decorations. I figured that just because we weren't having a party, that didn't mean I couldn't decorate for one. Our living room became awash in Disney Princess signs, banners, etc. Alexis LOVED it, so much so that I'm leaving all the stuff up for a while.

All that before she even went to school.

After school she got to pick where we would have her Birthday Dinner. (I'll be kind and not mention the part where Mr. Husband convinced her she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. *ahem*) So, off to Chuck's rat hole we went where Alexis dined on cardboard and had a blast collecting the tickets Mr. Husband and I won playing basketball.

Once we returned home, it was time to massacre Cinderella. Er, I mean massacre a Cinderella CAKE. Alexis had picked a tiny little Cinderella cake this year, and she actually ate it this year. I'm not sure who had more fun with it--her eating it or me enjoying the fact that she was slaughtering Cinderella. Probably me.

After the cake it was time for the present. OMG, the present! I totally nailed it when I picked out her gift. She loves it SOOOO much that is worthy of its own post, just as soon as I manage to stop laughing long enough to hold the camera still while she plays with it. Best. gift. ever.

Now that I have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, the guilt is gone. A customized day of The Royal Treatment was waaaaaaaay better than any silly ol' party would have been.

One gold star for me. Now I'll just have to make sure I totally fail the kid at some point this week so she doesn't get too used to having it good.