Saturday is Harper’s seventh birthday. Sunday is Meredith’s ninth birthday.
Because I can’t deal with having too many things going on at once, I decided to let Harper have her friend party this past weekend. This coming weekend will be the family party. Next weekend will be Meredith’s party. (Who am I kidding?! Every DAY is a stinking party at our house! Not really!)
I told Harper she could invite three friends over, and that we would decide what to do based on how many friends will be joining us. She told me that since it’s her first sleepover at our house, she would rather have one friend over, and do a bigger party with more friends some other time. (She’s just like me. Easily overwhelmed. This evening I’m running a meeting at a restaurant and six people will be there and all of my work is done, yet I’m already thinking things like, “What if it’s loud?” and “What if I fall down and/or do that crying thing with my voice?” I know. At least I KNOW that I’m ridiculous. BUT, would it be better to NOT know, and just be ridiculous? I KNOW I shouldn’t eat an entire pecan pie. NOT knowing that I shouldn’t would be a lifestyle game changer. Where was I?)
Harper chose a friend. We picked that friend up on Saturday afternoon and headed straight to one of those places where you pay entirely too much money to paint ceramics. (My mom used to run a ceramics shop out of our basement when I was a kid. When I told her that I paid $21 to paint a mug for myself, she gasped. “That shouldn’t have cost more than six dollars.” She then said something about how Coco painted a set of mugs for Ice once and how he responded with “I love ’em all. I love ’em crazily!”) After the ceramics, we came home and ate pizza. When the pizza was finished, we jumped into the car and headed out to The Melting Pot to dip strawberries and marshmallows and cheesecake and brownies and bananas and more into two big pots of chocolate. (One of which was set on FIRE!)
Okay. I’m about to turn into a Pinterest mom. Buckle up.
On the way home from The Melting Pot, we stopped by a craft store to buy plain t-shirts, iron-on rhinestones, and medicine droppers.
Two hours later, we had Sharpie tie-dyed t-shirts!
I ironed the rhinestones onto Harp’s friend’s t-shirt yesterday morning. The finished shirt looks like this:
When the shirts were done, the girls were getting tired. SO, we decided to make fairy jars! I took a few glow sticks and cut off the tips. I then shook the sticks into the jars, and found that nothing was coming out. SO, I cut off the tips from the other side of the sticks. The glowing goop splattered out onto my Ben Folds Choking Lady t-shirt, which made me flip out on the inside. When I shook the sticks into the jars, the stuff STILL wouldn’t come out. SO, I put my mouth around the glow sticks and blew the goop into the spice jars. (I was still tasting the glowing goop at three in the morning, and that’s when I started wondering if it was toxic. And then I started comparing UPS shipping times with planning a funeral, because I had ordered a pretty awesome dress earlier in the evening, and if at all possible, I want that dress to be my visitation dress if the glow sticks are going to be my ticket out.)
Luckily, the phrase “met her demise after blowing glow sticks into fairy jars” probably won’t appear on my obituary. (I just read an article about metastasis, by the way. This may or may not have something to do with time-released glow stick poison and my fear of glowing from within.)
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I am pretty sure you are okay on the glow stick thing. My daughter bit one open (WHY?! Why would she do that?) and then complained that it was stinging her mought. So I consulted the package (with number for poison control at the ready) and it confirmed that they might experience a burning sensation but that the substance is non-toxic. So – no worries, I say. It seemed like it went away in about 20 minutes.
Also – we have a birthday sleepover at our house this weekend and I think I will likely steal your sharpie t-shirt idea.
mouth not mought. argh.
You officially make me feel like a loser mom. Way to be.
(Just kidding. I’m actually super glad you linked the tee tutorial because I that would be fun to do with my kids.)
Also? Happy birthday girls!
Happy Birthday dear Harper!
Happy Birthday dear Meredith!
So big – it happens fast!
How DID you do those Sharpie shirts? They’re beautiful!
you’re the cool mom. That’s awesome.
Sharpie tie dyed shirts look cool and much simpler than regular tie dyed shirts. I’ll have to borrow the idea for a Cub Scout project one day.
Fairy jar are cool. Wonder if I can convince boys to do it for Cub Scouts? Is there a masculine name I can give the darn things?
Are you sensing a theme here? Hubby is the new Cubmaster which means I’m the unofficial Asst. Cubmaster and officially Pack Committee chair. ARGH!
I don’t remember why I did it, but I a few months ago I bit a glow-stick. I had a glowing mouth, lips, and teeth for twenty minutes. It was disgusting. I will never do it again, I hope. But I’m still alive. I’m just missing a gallbladder, uterus, and have pneumonia, but I’m pretty sure they aren;t related.
My daughter had a glow stick hanging from the rearview mirror of her car. It exploded in the heat and totally ruined her dashboard. We never could get the residual stains removed.
I cannot decide which to do first – shirt or jar. Best.Mom.Ever.
The dress you ordered is awesome, and I’m wondering if glowing lips would keep a person awake . . .
You are clearly the Best Mom Ever! It’s actually nice that Harper chose to have just one friend over this time — those projects wouldn’t have been as much fun with too many little artists to supervise at once. Those T-shirts are making this old hippy want to run right out and get some Sharpies to update the old techniques.
Elizabeth, how about “Dragon’s Breath” for a more masculine name for those fantastic Fairy Jars? I was a Den Mother 40 years ago, and I don’t think little boys are all that much different today.
Those fairy jars are one of the first things I ever pinned. Er…I haven’t tried them yet. But nice to see they actually work.
Love the shirts! What a great birthday!
That’s true about seven, but next come eight, nine, and ten. Of course, ten’s a double-digit so that’s a biggie. (Just discovered you linked to how make Sharpie t-shirts. Can’t wait to try it!)
Wow, you make the rest of us look bad! What a fabulous birthday – I’m tired just reading about it!