Cookie Party with a Commitment Problem

The older I get, the more I realize that I tend to think about things for a long time before I take action.   It's not simply indecisiveness, though that's a piece of it.  It's more like not wanting to tie myself down to an action before I know that it's what I really, really want to do. 

 Actually, writing that out makes me realize that what I just described is probably the very definition of indecisiveness.   Oh well.   I don't know...let me think about it and I'll get back to you when I decide whether I'm indecisive, or merely just a bit of a commitment-phobe.   Or whatever.  This blogpost is going nowhere fast.   

Back to the story at hand.  

Sometime early in Christmas break I got the great idea that I wanted to throw a New Year's Eve cookie party, reminiscent of my birthday cookie party of 2023.     Why a cookie party and not a regular party with normal party food and fun activities?   That's a really valid question and I can't really answer that without reminding you all of the fact that throwing parties is really, really, really not my strong point.  Remember this one from back in the day?    Yeah, well let's just say that I may have an empty nest and a house much more suitable for entertaining, but I really haven't changed much in 18 years.   

Oh yeah, and I really like cookies. 

Emma, Adam, and I made a plan and started baking and freezing cookies several days before the intended party.   

Did I start inviting people then?  

No, though that would have made perfect sense.   

I  thought through the details of timing and such and created this cute invite. 

Did I start inviting people then?   

Nope, not yet.    

I went full-blown Lara 2008 mode and waited until December 30th (the day before) and with hundreds of cookies sitting in my freezer, a whole hot chocolate bar set-up, and all the paper goods purchased, I decided it was time to start officially inviting people.   

So, I finally did.   

I'm happy to say it was not near as chaotic as the birthday parties of years' past.   

We had hot chocolate...

and cookies galore (all gluten free)...

that were enjoyed by all who came.   

Though I consider the party to be a success, I know more people would have come with more notice. But, upon reflection, I think that very concept is a big  part of my chronic indecisiveness.   I'm the kind of person who likes to invite everyone, so no one feels left out, and when you invite everyone, that means it could get overwhelming fast.   So sending invites last minute, I think became my own subconscious  defense mechanism to keep the crowds manageable.  

So, once again this blog becomes Lara's therapist.   Now let's see if processing all this helps me to plan a party with more notice next time.  Or helps me to make a decision and stick with it.    We shall see, but I recommend not getting your hopes up!   HAHA!  

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Ramblings of an {Almost} Old Lady

Guess what?!    This is the last blogpost I'll ever write as a 49-year-old.    

Next week, I'll probably have dentures, hearing aides, white hair, a cane..and be calling everyone "Sonny".   Don't remind me that I already have the white hair part taken care of.  

So, if anyone happens to see my grandbaby Lucie anytime soon, I have a super important assignment for you...   You need to ask Lucie what an elephant says.   Then ask to see her belly button.    And then ask her where her eyebrows are.  And then ask to meet her Bear Friend.  The synapses in her brain have been connecting like crazy lately and she is a hoot!    She's learned how to say "eyebrow" and "happy" while I've been on the phone with her in the last week.   I'm pretty sure she is the smartest AND cutest baby in the universe.   Or at least equally cute/smart as  all my kids were!  

I am a little jealous that Glen gets to spend a week babysitting Lucie next week.   I will be heading on a long-planned trip to Virginia to give Ellie the Mormon Prom experience, but I wish I could go straight to Alabama afterward instead of coming home.  But school.  Ellie still has a few weeks left, so we probably shouldn't keep her out too too long.    As it is, she is missing 3 days for our Virginia trip. 

Speaking of Virginia trips....it only took about 12 hours and 50+ dress try-ons before Ellie FINALLY found the prom dress she wanted. 

It got so bad at the end, that I was ready to walk out of the store insisting that she wear the dress she wore to Sweethearts' Dance.  But apparently that would have been a mean-mom move.  I mean what kind of mom makes their daughter wear the same expensive dress twice?!  It's not like anyone in Virginia has seen it before.🙄     

One thing is for certain....I'm very happy to be done with the prom dress stage of life.  Have I mentioned lately how much I hate shopping?  

On a totally different note....guess how I am celebrating my 50th birthday?!  I went out to lunch with a couple friends this past week {one of whom knew it was my birthday, one who didn't} and I've got some fun things planned with my family, but, for the most part,   I don't want anyone to know it's my birthday.  It has nothing to do with not wanting to acknowledge my increasing age, but  I think I've figured out that I have an intense fear of insincerity, so not advertising my birthday on social media means that anyone who wishes me happy birthday actually knows me enough to make a note of my birthday....or reads my blog, which means  you are officially awesome.

In any case, I'm throwing a "perfect date" cookie party instead and absolutely not mentioning that it's my birthday.  

I sent this invitation along with a link to the "perfect date" clip on Youtube.  Yeah, yeah.  I'm so hilarious and I'm sure I'll get even more hilarious once I'm officially old (in a few short hours).  

Are you in town?  Come.  This old lady would love to see you.   And we'll have cookies. 

A Full and Happy Weekend

I've spent so much time playing catch-up on the blog, I decided that I wanted to do a post about the recent past, instead something that happened months ago.  

We've only been here for a few months, but we've already met some awesome homeschoolers here in Pennsylvania.  It's not as close-knit as our homeschooling group in Virginia because of the distance between us all, but we definitely do enjoy the time that we do get to spend.  On Friday we met at the Pecks' house and let the kids make gingerbread houses, while us moms got to enjoy some social time too. 

It is my strong personal opinion that decorating gingerbread houses is a timeless activity that one never outgrows.    The kids were definitely more conservative with their decorating now that they're older, but it was clear that they were enjoying themselves! 

Then on Saturday we had a special day when Glen's cousin was sealed to her husband in the Philadelphia temple.   It was great to be a part of and great to see so many of Glen's extended family that we've moved away from.  

Later that day we went to the church for our ward Christmas party.  I was very busy helping with food, so there are almost zero pictures from there, but here is a quick one I snatched with the sweet sister missionaries serving in our ward(it's literally the ONLY picture I took the whole night).   

 

 My friend sent me this picture that shows the amazing  sisters that made handmade tamales and delicious shredded chicken for burritos for the whole ward.   They fed about 300 people and still had enough for a linger longer after church today.   

I helped rally the ward into signing up for food to share.   It was a much different experience than in our last ward (meaning that not very many people actually used the sign-up), but everyone came through and there ended up being  plenty of food to feed the masses!   (It really did feel like a small miracle that there was so much food to spare). 

Today we went to church where I remembered to take a picture with a good friend of Matt and Karey that happen to be visiting her parents this weekend.   It's always amazing what a small world it is within the church. 

So there you have it....this is our boring life in real-time. 

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

March 23:  

After weeks and weeks of counting down, my baby girl is ELEVEN YEARS OLD today!   

We started the day with Daddy's special crepe breakfast.  

Then Ellie's primary teacher dropped by with a little treat for her.   

Then, because her birthday is right in the middle of spring break this year, she got to have her birthday party on her actual birthday!  

We made these fun crafts...

watched "Inside Out," played minute to win it games, 

decorated cupcakes, 

and had a lot of fun laughing and being silly together!   

Now, here are ELEVEN things we love about our new ELEVEN year-old!

1. Ellie's enthusiasm for life is unparalleled!  

2. Ellie knows how to get things done! 

3. Ellie is easy-going and is happy to go with the flow!

4.  Ellie's sense of fashion is way better than my own!

5. Ellie is a great conversationalist! 

6. Ellie loves people and is good at showing it!

7. Ellie loves furry things, especially dogs and horses, almost as much as she loves people!

8. Ellie has a naturally cheerful and optimistic personality!

9. Ellie isn't afraid to dive into complicated projects and recipes!

10. Ellie is very in tune to people's feelings and tries hard to help others to feel comfortable and happy.

11. Ellie is a truly creative thinker and often astounds me with her outside-the-box way of looking at things.  

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Princess Invasion!

Junk food.

Singing and Dancing.

Climbing into Cami's lair.

Huffing and puffing.

A princess invasion of this kind can only mean one thing....

My baby is....

1,                                  2,

                           3,                                                     4,

FIVE!!!!!

Happy Birthday Sweet Ellie Bellie!
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More Surprises

You may have noticed that we have a thing for surprises in our family. My sister Heather has "dropped by" from Minnesota unexpectedly on a long weekend. Matt surprised my parents by showing up unexpectedly from DC with a serious girlfriend (now wife) in tow. Even my parents have been known to pull a few fast ones over on us kids (probably where we got it from) like the time when they woke us all up from a sound sleep and we thought it was morning, but it was really the middle of the night and it was high time we learned to do our chores correctly.

So naturally with all these surprising precedents in our family, we didn't think that all 8 of us kids randomly showing up in Utah a month after his 60th birthday was quite enough of a shock to his system. We went for shock and awe of the adjust your blood pressure medication variety.

The next day after we arrived, we contrived to get a couple of the boys to take Dad out to lunch while the rest of us got busy setting up mountains of food for his big SURPRISE PARTY!

When I say "mountains of food", I mean MOUNTAINS....

Side note: If you ever want to butter me up for some big favor sometime, those pink sprinkled cookies should do the trick just fine.


Then we started filling the house with family and friends.....

and waited for Dad's big entrance....

We got him good...again! (he was a little more reserved in his reactions this time, but he was shocked nonetheless)

We did have a little scare there that things were going to get ugly when my Dad almost refused the hug of his good friend who dared enter into Cougar territory with a U of U shirt...


We also got pretty nervous when Nate insisted on putting the full 60 candles on the cake...

But we were able to escape calling the fire department and Dad was able to overcome his phobia for a second to finish the hug...


Afterwards a bunch of them went off to watch the BYU vs. FSU game...

which was *almost* enough to ruin the fun of the rest of the day with its disappointing outcome, but it's hard to keep a group of Crains down for long....

To be continued with tales of our family pictures, Settlers of Catan raucousness, and a G-rated discussion on circumcision vs. castration for my sister.

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Lazy Mom's Guide to Planning a Birthday Party

WEEK OR TWO BEFORE PARTY:

1. Choose a theme: "Oh look! Wal-mart has 'Cars' plates and a dinosaur pinata. I bet Adam will love a dinosaur themed Cars party."
2. Pick a date: "No lessons or games on Monday afternoon...okay next Monday it is."

3. Pick your guests: "If he only invites people from last year's preschool group I won't have to look up anybody's number."

4. Give out invitations (week before, if convenient): "Everyone should be at the Primary activity, I'll just hunt people down there."

5 HOURS BEFORE PARTY

5. Clean your house: "Never mind the play room, bathroom, or the bedrooms. I've been meaning to clean out this cupboard for weeks."


4 HOURS BEFORE PARTY:

Fish out crumpled invitations from purse and frantically call the four guests who didn't happen to be at the Primary activity as expected: "I'm really sorry. No, it's not personal. I know everyone around you got invitations, but really I meant to invite your child too. I just didn't happen to see you that one day, you know how it is."

2 HOURS BEFORE PARTY:

6. Plan your menu: "I have chocolate cake mix, but no eggs. I have hot dogs, but no buns. And I have pretzels. Hmmm...okay I guess we're having eggless chocolate cupcakes, bunless hot dogs, and pretzels."

1-1/2 HOURS BEFORE PARTY:

7. Prepare your food: "I sure hope that eggs are an optional ingredient. Oh well, it has lots of sugar and oil...good enough for me; good enough for a crowd of six year olds."

1 HOUR BEFORE PARTY:

8. Decide your activities: "Oh look at this awesome party planning website! It's full of all these fun, creative ideas. Too bad I don't have the materials to do them. Haha...it says here you're supposed to give yourself at least 4 weeks of planning time."

Cue the hysterical, maniacal laughter (everything's funnier under pressure you know). "Four weeks! Hahaha! Try an hour and four minutes!"

45 MINUTES BEFORE PARTY:

9. Run to nearest dollar store for balloons and some materials for those super fun activities: "Oh crap! When did this dollar store close down?"

40 MINUTES BEFORE PARTY:

10. Run to nearest CVS for balloons and some materials for those super fun activities: "What is wrong with your hands? Puh-lease let me tie the ribbons on those balloons myself. Don't you know I have eight six-year-olds coming to my house in half an hour?"

20 MINUTES BEFORE PARTY:

11. Make final preparations for party (an extremely loud voice is helpful at this stage): "Spence, vacuum quick! Emma, straighten the play room now! Adam, stuff the pinata! Cami, set the table! Ellie, please stop dumping out the barbies!"

PARTY BEGINNING:

12. Take deep breath and calmly welcome guests to your awesome party.