Elaina’s 10th Birthday Party

It is that time of year again. After Gabriella opted for not having a party this year (she went back and forth on the issue for weeks), we started going into planning mode for celebrating Elaina’s first decade on this planet. Since this was going to be her first birthday at her new school and new home, she was pretty excited about it. Thankfully, party planning is just another service that Dad provides for the Calkins Family, so let us bring on Elaina’s space-themed 10th birthday party!

After Gabriella waffled for a few weeks about if she was going to have a party or not (making the final decision only a week before the prospective party date), Elaina had to make her decision a month out to ensure we had enough time to get the invitations out and to purchase decorations. It was an unequivocal “Yes!” Once we decided a party was happening, I picked the date, which happened to fall on her actual birthday this year, and Elaina choose her theme: Space, the final frontier. Even though character parties are a lot easier due to the amount of options available, this gave Elaina a great opportunity to get creative with the decorations, activities, and party bags for her event.

About a week before her invitations were scheduled to go out, one of Elaina’s friends had a birthday party. This helped a lot in Elaina determining who she was going to invite to her party. This was great timing, because I was slightly worried I would only be inviting my friends and their kids to her party. Thankfully, Elaina continues to be the social butterfly, and with slightly over a month in school, she already had a solid group of friends to come to her party. The invitations went out on schedule and we waited patiently for the RSVPs to roll in. Elaina was still really concerned about the party though, because she still has bad memories from her last party at Fort Huachuca, where everyone RSVP’d but only one family showed up. She was praying that did not happen again this year.

When I dropped Elaina off at her friend’s party, a strange thing happened that I was not prepared for: parents were just dropping their kids off. I did not want to be seen as a helicopter parent or untrusting of the hosts, so I eventually gave Elaina a hug and said I would be back in two hours (Gabriella saw this as an opportunity for some Daddy-Daughter time). I could not tell if this was a Fort Campbell thing or if it was just how parties are when kids get older, but it was certainly different than our full family gatherings at Fort Huachuca. Elaina and I were curious to how it was going to be when it came to her party.

On the Friday before her birthday, Elaina wore a crown and a sash to school, as well as brought cupcakes for her classmates, leaving no doubt who the birthday girl was. That evening, we started decorating the house with planets, astronauts, and spaceships, while the girls stuffed the piñata with candy (and of course saving a few for themselves). Gabriella and I also made the carnitas, which would cook all night before I chopped it up in the morning. As per our standard birthday party fare, carnitas nachos were once again chosen by Elaina as the main dish for her event.

By this time, a lot of gifts had already started coming in for Elaina, from her mother, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. Thankfully, she got to FaceTime with most of them over the next two days while opening her presents. While not themed appropriately, she asked for a lot of LOL and OMG dolls this birthday, and she definitely received them. And because of the number of gifts she received, I had to get an extra OMG doll for Gabriella, as she was starting to feel a little left out.

I woke up at my usual weekend time of 0500 so that I could start on the carnitas, but the rain was right there to greet me. It was certainly beautiful, but it ensured the trampoline (space bounce) was going to be off-limits for safety reasons. Bummer. I am sure it will be fine and the kids will figure out how to still have fun.

Either way, the girls were really excited and were not going to let it ruin their day.

They helped me finalize the birthday table and did some last-minute cleaning around the house. Because of her unique theme, we got these cute NASA bags for everyone, which included various space-themed favors, such as galaxy stress and bouncy balls, “space” slime, a die-cast space shuttle, and planetary dig kits (like the dinosaur eggs, but with space).

I finished chopping and crisping the carnitas, as well as prepped the nacho cheese, beans, and toppings. Very busy morning, as always, but we have got this routine down to a science.

After rearranging the living room for added space and blowing up a ton of balloons for the house, the girls were ready to receive their guests.

And then no one showed up. While all the families had RSVP’d except one, even by 11:15am, not a single child had arrived.

Elaina was already starting to get frustrated, telling me that she did not even want to have a party next year. After some much needed nachos to keep them occupied, I checked the invitation, just to make sure I had the right address or something crazy like that. On the invitation, the party was not supposed to start until 11:30am. Dad fail.

After having a good laugh at their Old Man Dad, the girls went back to the window looking for partygoers, who eventually showed up. They all arrived over the next 15 minutes, alleviating Elaina’s fears that her party was going to be a bust. With each arrival, the girls took them to the dining room to get their party backpack, grab some food, and then ran off to play in the house. While some of the kids were definitely dropped off without so much as a wave or introduction from their parents, some of the parents did stop by to chat (one parent described this “making sure that our house was not a complete mess” before leaving her kid). Not only was this a little odd, but even though it was clearly stated in the RSVP texts, families did not show up, just the invitee and (sometimes) a parent. Given that we were used to events at Fort Huachuca being family affairs, with every parent and sibling showing up for a party, this just struck me as a little odd. With the parents who did show up though, even the ones who only wanted to talk for a few minutes then leave, they ended up staying the whole time talking to one another. Because it seemed outside of the norm, I think everyone enjoyed having some food and chatting with relative strangers.

As for the partiers, even though she swore it would be off-limits, they all went straight to Elaina’s room and played for basically the next hour. Every now and then, a kid would pop out for some chips or water, but they were having a great time doing whatever they were doing. Tons of planned activities at parties are overrated anyways; the girls will figure out how to have a good time regardless of what I plan for them. Eventually they consolidated around the play area to dig through their planetary kits, which turned out to be a giant mess (and completely my fault) due to the lack of supervision (I was apparently having too much fun talking to adults).

Afterwards, we went outside for the piñata, which one of the parents helped hoist up over the tree in our front yard. It had stopped raining, so it was a great time to knock this activity out before it returned (which it did). Even though there was no slugging with a bat this year (I feel that they are making these things tougher specifically so they cannot be destroyed anymore, because of safety or something), the girls had a lot of fun pulling strings and picking up candy regardless.

After blowing out her candles and passing out cake, the girls gathered around Elaina for the opening of the presents. LOL and surprise toys continued to be the gift of choice, which Elaina was more than happy to receive. The party continued without incident, which was nice for a change, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Elaina and Gabriella had a great time with their friends and I got to talk to other adults for a couple hours. This party was definitely a win for everyone.

As with (almost) everything we do, if the girls are smiling at the end, I will consider it a success. No matter how much work goes into it or how much time is spent (I would be lying if I said cost was not a factor), so long as the girls are happy, the positives almost always outweigh the negatives. Even though we are a year out of practice with the whole party planning thing, Elaina’s party could not have gone any better, especially considering we initially just wanted people to show up. And the rainy day did not even slow us down. This is the first big event we have hosted since we reunited back at Fort Campbell, and hopefully, it is a sign of more great events to come over the next two years here. Happy Birthday, Elaina!

Thanks for checking in on us.

Cheers!