Erica's 11th Birthday!

As if three baseball games and a garage sale in two days wasn't enough, add in Erica's 11th birthday party - a sleepover with 5 of her friends. This party materialized at the last minute - Erica decided the who and when details on Tuesday evening, leaving me the task of inviting her friends (calling and leaving lots of messages on answering machines - amazing that mode of communication does work!). Normally, there would be formal invitations (with an RSVP by date!), balloons, a custom cake, party favors, etc. Well, none of that this year.....no time.....I was lucky that the grocery store has pre-made cakes and decorators on hand - we picked out this chocolate cake for the party:


Even details of what we would do during the party were sketchy - I suggested swimming [NO!], and a movie [nothing good is playing], going to the park [it will be TOO Hot and BORING - no LAME {LAME is this summer's catchphrase}]. OK, I thought, we'll just run this thing by the seat of our pants. They can always just "hang out" and generate their own drama.

But Mom comes through in the clutch - I suggest Mini-Golf - and the suggestion is accepted! It was the perfect night for Mini-golf - we were even allowed to keep the 6 girls together. After Mini-golf, we went to a new park in town and the girls ran around until sunset:


Back at our house, settled down to popcorn and a movie - Nancy Drew:Get a Clue. Lights out at 11:30 and hopefully they got enough sleep. All I know is I certainly slept well - I was exhausted!