Watch me whip .... this party into shape

After Delila's 10th birthday party, I told her we probably weren't doing them anymore because I usually always exceed any budget I set for myself, no matter how much I try to tell myself I'm not going to. I can't help it, I'm a party planning extraordinaire and my ideas flow endlessly. Every year is a theme, and every thing surrounds the theme, from outfits, to food, decorations, gifts, down to the card and wrapping paper I use; and the budget is enough to be considered stupid, and the cake, the cake is the show piece. It's kind of gross how excited I get when someone lets me pick out a cake design.

Prior years, I would start planning for the next year's birthday the days following what birthday had just passed. But I hadn't done that for this upcoming birthday. I didn't want to do a party, I had hoped I could replace a single life moment with several more memorable ones. I've done some fantastic things for her in the last year, two of which was a week road trip out east along side a last minute, over spent, concert she was just "dying" to go to, signed poster and all. She's went to her first Blackhawks game and I drove her to Milwaukee for an Ariana Grande concert she wanted to see. Moments. Moments I hope she loves as much as I have.

So where are we?

We are two weeks away from another birthday, another year behind us (thank goodness because it's had a lot of lows for us), but more importantly heading into another year together ahead of us. And she wants a party. I have learned as she's gotten older to down scale the guest list, which helps, plus as she gets older, now that she's a tween, there's less for the family to do and more for her to do with her friends. All the fault to my own, since I haven't been planning for the last year, I'm putting together a party in less than two weeks time. Fear not, because if you remember from above, I'm a party planning extraordinaire.

I'm not giving out details as to what is going on for it yet, although I will say that this year is slightly less about the party and more about the gifts; that's where I'm putting my heart into this year. I just hope that as my daughter ventures deeper and deeper into the dark side of tween-age and teenage years, she holds tight to the times Mom made her smile vs the times Mom took away her cell phone. I have endured hell for her, I would move mountains for her, and I know she's in a spot in life right now where I'm not a shining star for her, but nothing and no one, can ever take away the love, admiration, and devotion I have for her. She is my one, my only, my absolute beginning and end.