Snowman cookies ready for the goodie bag
I don’t know what we were thinking. Tomorrow we will be invaded by an army of preschoolers, many with their younger siblings and parents in tow. For tomorrow, The Girl turns 5.
It feels like this birthday party has taken on a life of it’s own. What started as a small affair with 5 friends has somehow tripled in size. There will be 14 kids here between the ages of 6 months and 6 years. Add in at least a parent, maybe 2 for each and we are going to have a houseful.
In the living room, my wife is putting the finishing touches on some of the goodie bags. Like many, we wrestled with whether to do goodie bags or not. But I know that The Girl looks forward to that bag of trinkets when she goes to a party. Let’s face it – kids LOOOOVE goodie bags. Plus, I think it is a nice lesson in gratitude for our kids to learn. These kids were nice enough to come to the party, so let’s thank them for their time and generosity by giving them a little something in return.
The one thing we did decide about the goodie bags was to forgo the cheap plastic dollar store crap and try to go for something homemade and useful. So my wife, being the crafty girl she is, has been working with Maggie this week baking and crafting up a storm of goodie bag treats. The package includes a homemade sugar cookie Maggie and Mom decorated as a snowman (snowmen are the theme), a small picture frame from the local craft store that the kids can colour with markers, and a package of “snowman soup” – hot chocolate mix with a couple marshmallows, kiss and a candy cane stir stick that we had leftover from Christmas. Simple, tasty and no trinkets. I think the kids will like it. Hell, it’s cookies and chocolate, what’s not to love?
So, wish me luck. We have batten down the hatches, hidden as many breakables as possible and have stocked up on copious amounts of wine to help us deal with the aftermath tomorrow night. But this ain’t about us. There is only one person I hope has a great time tomorrow. Happy birthday, my girl!
