Secrets of a Great Illusionist….How To Do It all!

This morning I had the super fun surprise of talking on the phone to an old friend from high school.  She asked me how on earth I was hosting 2 parties in one week (the Egg Hunt on Saturday, and Tid Bit’s 5th birthday party today,) so I thought I’d share about how I’m making it all happen in a quick list.

• Don’t sleep as much as you should, which we all know isn’t good for me in particular because oftentimes I end up acting infantile and doing things like throwing raw eggs at the wall when I’m tired.

• You serve Pillsbury Funfetti boxed mix cupcakes instead of the homemade ones that sunk in the middle and will only look good to the K4 class at school.

• You reuse as many of your Easter Egg Hunt decorations as possible and convince your Birthday Boy that the pendant banners look really “bluegrassy” and festive for a boy’s birthday too despite having pink in them….after all, it “matches our dining room.” Make as much use also of the flower arrangements from the Easter party too…just pull out the dead  flowers and change the water that looks like a perfect breeding grounds for sea monkeys and tadpoles.

• Get creative and use the astroturf (that you originally bought for your Easter party but didn’t use because it looked tacky) as table coverings…because it kind of looks like grass and Daddy wasn’t pleased to have $30 worth of unused astroturf anyways.  Then you loan it to your neighbor for her son’s sports themed birthday party…because plenty of sports are played on astroturf.

• Serve hummus and pita chips that you already had and tell your Birthday Boy what a great idea that is because “that’s being a good steward and plus, it’s one of his favorite things to eat.”

• Have Capri Sun drink pouches for the kids, because it only takes 2 seconds to open a box and dump into a drink tub, and then you don’t have to clean out your glass drink containers later.

• Eat lunch and dinner out every night of the week because apparently it’s only possible to actually cook 1 healthy meal and throw two parties in a span of 6 days.

• Make fruit salad to use up all of the bits of fruit that you have in your house and won’t eat since you’re going out of town for the weekend.  People will think you’re just healthy and went to extra trouble.  The Birthday Boy will remind you that this, in addition to the hummus use, is demonstrating good “stewardship.”

• Don’t do the laundry, and continue to ignore the 2 baskets of clean laundry that you haven’t had time to fold or put away.

• Don’t pack for your out of town trip even though you’re leaving at noon tomorrow.

• Only clean the parts that people will actually see (and even more so with kids parties) you NEVER mop.

• And, as always, at the last minute, throw things in the beloved junk drawer.