The crazy a party brings to crafty mom

Well I thought I would finally blog a tiny bit about the big birthday party.  You can catch more here if you want more on the crafty side of things.

See problem number one is I am a procrastinator and reluctant to admit that.  So I one day I realized that we needed to quickly come up with a theme for this birthday party and being the good mother that I am I gave my son choices.  Looking back I see this was a mistake.  I should have just picked something and done it all to make my life easier but I couldn't.  I wanted him to be involved.  Good mommy won over bad mommy.
 So I pulled up some various ideas online and we had semi decided on an eyeball/monster theme.  Super I will order the stuff so it will be here on time so we can get crackin on this.  Because while I am sure there are lots of places that sell a fabulous variety of party supplies here I have yet to find it.  AND, even if I did find it I am not super excited to pack up the two kids and dog, go downtown, pray it is not pouring rain, pay to park and then hike the two miles to the store.  Keep track of kids in store and pray that super destructor boy does not in fact destroy store while in it.  Also pray that dog is not eating inside of car because he is "bored".Anywho enough of that rant.  So we were at a different base that has a larger selection of party stuff and my husband {whom I adore} said why don't you just get something here instead.  Sigh.  I had already crafted in my head all the stuff for the other party but what he said made sense plus my son saw Star Wars stuff so I never had a chance.  Of course they did not have enough Star Wars goody bags or plates so I had to supplement which I found annoying which is why I wanted to order in the first place.  One click shopping.
So finally we had a theme and a few supplies.
 I had rented the Pavilion which is basically a giant long building with a cement floor.  It includes a bouncy castle and a barbecue so I figured it was perfect for 7yr old boys.  Indoor which is huge here this time of year, plenty of room to run like maniacs and we could grill hot dogs which my son loves and lives on {much to my dismay}.  Was that enough?  Nope not for mom.  What would we do at this party?  We needed games, crafts, activities and a schedule.  My husband thought I was nuts.  Looking back he was right.
I logged onto Pinterest which I adore and think is the devil because of the genius ideas I find while it sucks all my time away.  I found quite a few ideas but I just couldn't decide and reading all these ideas was taking time and life was happening in the meantime.  Halloween and all the chaos surrounding that and our three trick or treating outings.  I was a busy woman and remember the whole procrastinating thing....
So we get to the day prior to the party and what did I do all day long?  I cleaned my house and did laundry.  Not ONE thing party related because that my friends would have made wayyyyy to much sense.  That night there was a party thing we went to on base.  Guy Fawkes night or something like that.... my ignorance on this subject is causing my mom to roll in her grave even as I type.  We got home about 8:30pm and by the time we got the kids in bed and I started stuff it was just after 9pm.  Not a good sign.
My husband was on light saber duty.  He cut all the tube things I had bought in half and completed one.  Then decided that the kids would rather decorate their own and he went to bed.  He is smart and right about the kids.  So it was just me and lots of ideas and little time.
So I baked the cake so it could cool, I made the pasta salad, I started getting out serving dishes trying to decide which ones I wanted to schlep all the way to base and which ones they were least likely to break.  Then I started making my food tags, then I gathered all the food that did not require refrigeration.  I typed up a schedule for myself and made a map of the food table -yes I am that ridiculous and geeky.  Gathered the Star Wars guys I was using for the cake and washed them.  Plotted my obstacle course.
At about 2 am I was thinking what am I doing this is crazy and then I remembered the goody bags.  Oh those goody bags were the bane of my existence for this party... I just had zero ideas of what to put in them.  Zero.  I made some labels and attached them with my sticker maker to sandwich baggies that said  "Endor Trail Mix" and I cut some scraps up that I had leftover from my food signs and made bookmarks and then added the words "Dream Big" to them.  I decided a bookmark, snack and light saber was good enough for treat bags.  I went to bed around 3:30am because I am sooo brilliant.
Up at 7am the next day and we left the house at 9:30....party was suppose to start at 11am.  Of course we had stops on the way.  We had to grab some more tape on the way for the light sabers, grab ice and then the stuff to make the Endor Trail Mix since the idea had not come to me until 2am the day of the party.  Oh and candles and a lighter because I had forgot those.  Got all that and got there about 10:20 to start setting up.  Hauled everything in, set up tables and chairs, set up the bouncy castle and started to set out food when people started showing up.  I was not excited.  They were on time I was running behind.  I wanted to have everything in place before people came and look like I had it under control and that I was together when clearly I am not.
I never did get the obstacle course set up, I would have liked to made a backdrop for the food table and have had things on different levels to add more visual interest but it didn't happen.  Oh well.  I wanted to make my hair look like Princess Lei's also but that didn't happen. I wanted to spray paint the water bottles gold and in my wildest dreams I had wanted to find material and sew 20 Jedi robes for the kids attending but none of it happened and it was ok.
The kids were happy to bounce, them make their light saber, then bounce and attack one another.  We ate, they bounced some more and then we played musical chairs to Star Wars music (thank you itunes!) and freeze dance.  We opened presents and had cake.  Although visually to me it was one of the worst cakes I had ever made {and Ben had actually got into it earlier when no one was looking and ate part of the "dark side" with his bare hands} it was tasty.
I learned that I need to let go of these crazy ideas sometimes.  Simple is good.  I was reminded that if I want to go crazy with all this I need to not procrastinate.  I asked my son if he was happy with it and he said yes and at the end of the day THAT is all that mattered.