Party Foul

Nora's birthday party was supposed to be easy -- it was our fourth party at The Little Gym and as it didn't involve me being 9+ months pregnant (the first one) or a tornado (the third one), we figured this one would be pretty simple. But while innocently confirming our pizza order late in the afternoon on Friday, I discovered that the powers that be were under the mistaken impression that the party (which I had booked six weeks before) began at 6:30 pm rather than the contracted 4:30 pm and that another party had been scheduled for the same time.

It was then that the panic set in. Even if I was ok with having 15 four year olds from all over the metro area (which means some of them had to drive an hour each way to get to the fete) celebrating Nora's birthday from 6:30 to 8:00 pm on a Saturday night (and to be clear, I wasn't), I wasn't sure how to contact them all to inform them of the change given several were daycare friends who's only contact info I had was their parents' work emails which aren't necessarily the best way to contact folks on a Friday night.

For an hour I kept leaving increasingly hysterical voicemails to The Little Gym (which hadn't responded to my email with the confirmation info and wasn't taking my calls). I called Grandpa Don to ask if I had any legal recourse. I discussed with Mom Mom alternative party venues that could accommodate 15 little kids that might have an opening in the next 24 hours. I drank a lot of wine.

And then I got the magical email apologizing and saying that the party was still on. (They called later and offered to give us the party for free if we took the later time slot, but we demurred).

We arrived the next afternoon with a feeling of trepidation, but despite the confusion and anxiety, it ended up being a pretty amazing party. All the kids had a really good time, Nora loved being the center of attention, and her friend Lizzie even proclaimed it "the best party ever."

Which made us feel pretty good about things...till Owen asked Nora on the way home where she wanted to have her next birthday party.

(Special thanks to Mia, Ben, Violet, Lizzie, Hazel, Jo Jo, Curtis, Miyako, Erin, Evan, Makayla, and Natalie for spending this afternoon with us. To see all the party pics, please click here).