Autumn is 8!!!!!!

Well, believe it or not, my sweet baby girl is 8 years old now! I, for one, can believe it, because she's been acting like she's about 13 or so for several years now, so 8 doesn't seem so bad. ; )

Try as I might to convince her that it would be oh-so-fun to have her birthday party at some place like Different Strokes or the Boys & Girls' Club (where I would not have to do the cleanup), Autumn was absolutely insistent that this year, she was going to have a slumber party. Now, don't get me wrong, I love slumber parties. In fact, one of my fondest childhood memories is from my friend Rachel's 9th birthday party.

The Meskos had a large playroom that was a fair distance away from her parents' bedroom, so they somehow let Rachel talk them into inviting roughly 25 girls over to spend the night. You can imagine the chaos that ensued. Long after we were supposed to have been in bed, and probably a good hour or two after her parents had given up on ever getting us settled down, we were still screaming and running around like a bunch of caffeinated monkeys wreaking havoc in the dark. It was at this point that her dad, the infamous John Mesko, silently made his way up the hallway. His silhouette loomed in the doorway, and we froze as he flipped the lights on. We were terrified. His signature mane of wild white locks was in a particularly impressive state of disarray, seeming to almost stand on end over the rest of him, which stood tall in the doorway wearing only his tighty-whiteys and a dark and evil glare.

He paused for full effect. Once we were properly silenced by our terror, his low, even voice announced:

"Your mamas are not here to protect you. Go. To sleep."

I don't remember if we actually settled down afterwards or not, but it was a great try on his part either way! In light of this memory, among many others of parental torturing at various slumber parties in my youth, I was a little overwhelmed at the thought of being quite so outnumbered. But then I figured, hey, if all the other brave parents of the world can do it, so can we!

So once I helped Autumn narrow down her guest list (she desperately wanted to invite pretty much every little girl she'd ever met!), we set to work on the invitations. Since we had decided on an art theme, Autumn came up with the idea of painting the invitations to send out to her friends. I thought it was such a cute idea! We went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some blank notecards, and then Autumn created a little scene on the front of each invite.





Once the front had dried, I gave each one a title and wrote it on the back.





On the inside, I wrote down all the pertinent details, and then I painted each girl's name on the envelopes. On the back, I painted Autumn's favorite doodle, a heart with a little squiggly tail, as the envelope seal.







We kicked off the party with pizza from Papa John's, after which the girls helped me get mix up the birthday cake and get it in the oven. Then, while the cake was baking, we headed downstairs to our very own Artists' Studio that we had set up in the basement! We brought in some studio lights, hung some curtains, laid out a huge drop cloth and then stocked the room with dozens of paintbrushes, canvases, sponges, artist pallets and every color of acrylic paint under the sun. We even had finger paint set out for Norah!






We also had a picture frame ready for each girl to paint so that they could take it home in the morning with a photo from the party as a keepsake. I would say they had a good time! Here is the before and after:






Once the girls had finished their paintings and washed up in the basement's handy dandy mud sink, we headed back upstairs to pull the cake out of the oven. Then, while it was cooling, they got in their pajamas, opened presents, put on lots of lovely pink makeup (probably Autumn's favorite gift!), and sat at the table making necklaces and bracelets out of assorted glittery beads.

Then, once the cake had cooled, the girls went to town decorating it. Mmmm... Yummy!





Then her adorable little friend Ana played "Happy Birthday" on the piano while we all sang. It was so cute!





Once they were done devouring their creation, we got them settled in the living room to watch Hannah Montana and start to wind down. Once it was over, I had them brush their teeth and head to bed. Between the bunk beds, the trundle, the cot, Barrett's bed and his pull-out chair, there was plenty of room. I patted myself on the back when I went to check on them at around 12:30, and they all appeared to be peacefully sleeping. Then I went to bed myself, considering the evening to be quite a success.

It wasn't until I woke up with Norah at around 7:30 that I realized something had gone awry... All the little girls were squished into just 3 of the beds, and there were blankets and toys scattered all over. Apparently things have gotten more sophisticated since I was a kid, and now the girls are smart enough to be very, very quiet when they make trouble in the night so as to evade detection! Word on the street is that they stayed up until 4 a.m. I have no idea if this is true, but everyone escaped major injury and no property was destroyed, so either way I figure it isn't too big of a deal! Silly, sneaky girls!

We finished the party off with a yummy pancake and egg breakfast, then the girls played outside till their moms came. All in all, I would say it was a success!

There were way too many favorites for me to narrow it down to a blog post, so I dropped them all into a slideshow instead! As I was trying to pick out a song that summed up the evening, I realized that only one would do: Love Story by Taylor Swift, because the girls listened to it approximately 3,000 times over the course of the evening. : ) Click on the picture below to check out the slideshow!





Thank you so much to all the moms who let us borrow your precious girls for the evening! We all had a great time, and we can't wait to do it again! Happy birthday, Autumn!