The "I'm Too Old For a Theme" Party, Part 1

Sunday

Jan252015

When I titled a post before the 9th Birthday Extravaganza "The Calm Before the Storm," little did I know. I mean, seriously. TRUEST WORDS EVER.

The party mostly went as I expected it would. There was a lot of screaming, all of the talking, and generally an amazing amount of fun. While I did have to play referee in a few games of Girl Drama, mostly the clan of noisemakers got along fabulously and had a great time.

But then the clock struck midnight.

Midnight was the beginning of The Storm. It was the point when I finally realized I was going to have to be the mean mom and pop into the room where the girls were all supposed to be sleeping to ask that they please kick the herd of elephants out. There really was no other explanation for the amount of thumping and stomping that was shaking the entire house. There HAD to be a bunch of elephants hanging out with them.

When I requested that the elephants go out for ice cream or something, I was met with two very distinct reactions. Half the noisemakers said, "Yeah! Let's sleep!" The other half was all, "You're kidding, right?"

Fine.

I divided and conquered. I told the half that wanted to sleep to follow me and I turned over a second room to them so they could have peace and quiet. The other half was left to talk as much as they wanted.

Alexis was a sleeper.

I KNOW.

It was shocking.

But, she had participated in a cheer event that early in the afternoon before partying her butt off, so it made sense that she was tired. The child may not need much sleep, but she is very good at admitting when she does. And she did. She and the other sleepers were out cold within seconds of settling in the living room.

And with that, I went to bed. With Mila snuggled up at my side, I dozed between interruptions from the parade of girls who couldn't sleep, had a question, or wanted to talk to their moms for a second. They all went right back to bed without much of a discussion, so I couldn't even tell you what order they happened in. I just know that the 2:30 parade participant was the worst.

At 2:30 in the morning, a tiny little voice cut through the silence of the night and whispered the words nobody wants to hear, "Mom, I threw up."

Alexis. All over the couch.

By the time Alexis was done telling her tale, Mila had joined the party and was demanding to eat. Thus, I dispatched the husband to scope out the scene. I'm glad I did, too, because it wasn't pretty. Eventually everything was cleaned up, all the girls were asleep, and we were about to doze off, confident that the scene was a result of too many sweets and not enough sleep.

It wasn't.

I don't know what Alexis has, but it hit her like a runaway semi at 2:30 in the morning and hasn't let go since. The poor thing rolled through her day feeling about as great as a newly minted 21-year old the day after their birthday bar crawl.

Here's to hoping she can shake it over night tonight.

But, hey, at least she stayed well long enough to have a ton of fun at her party.