Since I was little I have loved throwing a party. I get this from my mom. When I was in grade school my friend, Marcy and I held bake sales and had a lemonade stand so we could raise money to throw a Halloween party for our friends. It was a perfect Halloween party.
As an adult, I still strive for that perfect party. I seem to forget that I have four-year old twins that have other, messy ideas.
Our family had decided to celebrate August and September birthdays at my parent’s lake house over Labor Day weekend. My niece, Molly was flying in from Texas and was bringing her boyfriend, Chris to the lake. While we had met Chris briefly before, this was going to be two action packed days with our family and I wanted the party to be perfect! We adore Molly and wanted to make a good impression with Chris since we can be a bit overwhelming!
My mom planned amazing summer menus and we had a zillion texts about who was bringing what, when people were arriving, and who was staying over at the lake. It was going to be perfect and here are three messy things that made it so.
As an adult, I still strive for that perfect party. I seem to forget that I have four-year old twins that have other, messy ideas.
Our family had decided to celebrate August and September birthdays at my parent’s lake house over Labor Day weekend. My niece, Molly was flying in from Texas and was bringing her boyfriend, Chris to the lake. While we had met Chris briefly before, this was going to be two action packed days with our family and I wanted the party to be perfect! We adore Molly and wanted to make a good impression with Chris since we can be a bit overwhelming!
My mom planned amazing summer menus and we had a zillion texts about who was bringing what, when people were arriving, and who was staying over at the lake. It was going to be perfect and here are three messy things that made it so.
1. Ditch perfect and embrace messy. Thanks to my dad, our family had built our log cabin lake house about 25 years ago and it is warm and inviting. I could envision Chris walking in from the porch and appreciating the lake charm of the cottage. My husband, Tony, Sophia, Stella and I had arrived on Thursday to hang out at the lake and help my parents get ready for the family gathering. My mom and I took the twins to the Dollar General and the girls declared that we needed decorations. Per Sophia and Stella, we were now having a Paw Patrol and Minion theme. We piled streamers, a Minion piñata, birthday banners, and plates into our cart. The girls were bursting with excitement about decorating for the birthday party. We even had to Facetime my sister-in-law, Liz and brother Sergie to show her our great decorations. On Saturday, we started to set-up for the party and in my mind we had a serene vision for inside the cabin. This perfect plan was quickly hijacked by the four-year olds! They explained that we needed to have streamers going across the room, decorate the singing fish, and even have streamers in the bathroom. Perfect was swiftly replaced by very bright. Sophia and Stella had a ball and my parents were cracking up. There was more Facetiming to show off the “fancy” decorations. Stella kept walking around the living room declaring “Mommy, this is so beautiful!” Her joyous smile and Sophia’s giggles made me realize that ditching perfect and embracing messy was what was important. I sent a warning text to my siblings about the decorations and they all were awesome when they arrived on Sunday. As my family complimented Sophia and Stella on the fancy decorations the girls glowed with joy.
2. Dive in to messy. Leading up to the party, I could envision picturesque moments of us tubing on the taco, fishing off the doc, and cruising around on the pontoon boat. In reality, it was picturesque but really messy! Sergie and Matt fired up the jet ski. Tony gave three determined tries at water skiing which I captured on Facebook live but no luck in getting up. Molly and Chris had an epic crash off the taco tube. And, somehow we decided to recreate a picture from when Molly was in grade school. Molly and her friend, Meredith had piled lots of gross seaweed on their heads and are smiling away at the camera. I’m not sure how this even started but suddenly Eleanora, Sophia, Stella, Molly, and Chris were pulling seaweed out of the lake and piling it on their heads. Holly and I joined in on the gross fun. Missy and John were smart to be photographers of this crazy moment. It was totally gross, smelly, and messy. Eleanora, Sophia, and Stella thought it was hilarious. I think we all did too. Chris even took it one step further. Stella was having a bit of hard time since she wanted to be out tubing with the older folks. Chris decided to help distract her by asking Stella and Sophia to make him a seaweed coat. Chris is amazing and his seaweed coat was so gross! Dive in to messy and you will find a lot of joy!
3. Family is messy and that makes it perfect. My nieces, Eleanora (9) and Molly (23) are fabulous with Sophia and Stella (4). When you are little, like the twins, you just want to do what the big kids are doing. Stella, is relentless in trying to do whatever the big kids are doing and in conning the older kids into playing with her. This can be messy. I'm sure sometimes Eleanora would rather hanging out with her cousin Molly or play other games. And, I'm sure Molly and Chris had other lake activities on their list. Family can be messy when trying to fit everything in but the kindness and willingness to go along with four-year old requests is just heart melting. And, while messy, hopefully we circle around to what everyone wants to do. Eleanora was amazing with the twins and helped them with their party "check-in." I can't thank Molly and Chris enough for making awesome sand castles with the girls, doing a quick pirate ship park outing, and chatting with the little ones. We did miss our nephew, Alex and his girlfriend Ally as I know they would have been right in the middle of all of our adventures.
As I look back, by letting go of what I had envisioned and worrying less, we created the perfect messy party.
As I look back, by letting go of what I had envisioned and worrying less, we created the perfect messy party.
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