YaYa's 11th Birthday Party!

Sunday October 21^st was the date of YaYa’s 11th birthday party.  Before the festivities began we let her open her gifts from us, a Hunger Games nylon back sack and a Katniss Everdeen/Hunger Games Barbie Doll.

Are you sensing a theme yet?  No? Then how about looking at the magnificent Hunger Games cupcakes, complete with fully wearable Mockingjay ring

Or the “May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favor” signs we posted at the venue

Or the personalized Hunger Games invites we sent out, or the Hunger Games quotes we put on every straw

Then there’s the gift bags, which featured homemade HG bookmarks, HG necklaces assembled from craft items Lisa bought on Ebay, and a candy assortment of red hots and hot tamales (“Girl on Fire” candy) and the incredibly hard to find candy raspberries, used to represent the poison berries of the first novel.

A Hunger Games party it was, although it was first and foremost a Laser Tag party, held at the same venue where Smiley had his party in March.

(When YaYa broke her wrist we were worried we might have to cancel the party, as the use of the lazer rifle requires one hand to fire and another to activate the sensor, but thankfully when we took her to check the venue showed us rifles modified for just such eventualities, and the party was on!)

YaYa invited a dozen kids from her class, and all twelve showed. I paid for unlimited laser tag, so the kids spent the majority of the time in the arena, safe from our sight except when they showed up on the low-light monitors displayed in the lobby. 

We couldn’t really distinguish anyone on the monitor, with the exception of her friend Romy. Romy was wearing a fedora, and looked like a Capone era gangster on the screen . . .

Dinner was cold-cut sandwiches, chips, and soda. We forgot a candle for the cupcakes (!) so YaYa bluffed her way through that. Then it was time to open her presents.

Georgia gave her a while “I love Finnick” t-shirt

Romy gave her an owl necklace, a hair clip-in, and a gorgeous home-made card

Maura gave her a roll of decorative duct tape and a binder generously decorated with it

Meadow gave her a homemade jewelry tree

XXX gave her a One Direction charm bracelet

Karina gave her Owl knee-highs

Anna gave her a Barnes and Noble gift card

Jayden gave her a Target gift card

Rebecca gave her a Barnes and Noble gift card

Ivan gave her a card and cash

Sofia gave her a Target gift card

Here’s a picture you’ll never see taken at a boys birthday party – the partygoers competing to see how many of them could sit on each other’s laps.

The party was scheduled to end at 5 but ran late when the girls went in for another laser tag adventure. I’d have been ticked off if I was one of the parent’s stuck waiting, but everyone seemed to take it in stride!

I think it was a great party, and I know my girl had a lot of fun! Happy 11^th Birthday YaYa and may you have a hundred more!

P.S. – isn’t she stunning in this picture? My word!

note: the party was the same day there was a mass shooting at a spa in Brookfield (a Milwaukee suburb) and the news of the tragedy dominated the conversation among the kids for the first fifteen minutes or so, a sad testament of our times.