Last Saturday we had Hayley’s birthday party since too many people were busy the weekend of her actual birthday. It was the first time ever that I wasn’t a complete ball of stress in the 24 hours leading up to the start of the party. Yes, I had a few tense moments, but I wasn’t completely freaking out, which was a nice change.

Part of it was because back when we switched the two rooms, I threw my back out. Actually I did it on the day of Hayley’s birthday. I was taking two rather heavy speaker stands down to the dumpsters and I should have just left them on the ground, I decided to heave them in. Big mistake, of the spasm variety. I learned that I love Robaxacet. Regardless, it still hurt quite a bit so I ended up having to take it easy during the week. That meant less running around cleaning like a crazy person, as though I were holding the Queen’s coronation instead of a six-year-old’s party.

Another part of it was because the element in our oven died (the stove top still works) and we ran out of time to get it fixed. That meant I couldn’t make my almost-world-famous lasagnas and I couldn’t bake a cake. Which meant we did vegetable platters, and pate, and cheese with crackers, and then we ordered pizzas and had a store-bought cake. So much easier. I didn’t have to squeeze in all that extra work, which I used to do on the Friday night, exhausting myself.

I may never make lasagna or homemade cakes for a birthday party EVER AGAIN. I’ll pass on the back pain though.

Anyway, Hayley had a lot of fun.

She may have been a little excited. But just a bit.

She got a lot of Hannah Montana stuff which made her very happy. She’s only seen the show a few times and doesn’t really get a lot of the storyline since it goes over her head, but she loves the music and really enjoys the concert DVD from my sister. She got Hannah Montana sheets from two friends and from two others she got a Hannah Montana doll, make-up kit, and purse. She was in heaven.

Overall, it all went really well. The kids had fun in the new room, no one excluded Breanna (who was thrilled to play with the “big girls”, and the adults had good conversation time. I’d call it a success.

And miraculously, when I woke up on Sunday morning, the apartment actually wasn’t a complete disaster. I was very thrilled about the minimal clean-up!

Next year we’re hoping to invite some of Hayley’s school friends as well. In the meantime, now I have two months to plan Breanna’s party!

(A few other pictures were added to this set.)