t-minus-16 hours

hmmm...so, first, I was trying to come up with a good birthday-related song lyric for this title aside from the obvious, but could only think of the lyrics from the Sugarcubes' "Birthday," which, well, not a cheery song. So, instead...a countdown. Tick, Tick. And, these days the daughter's favorite read is Museum 123, so we're counting all the time!

So far in the last 72 hours (realizing just now that this actually "counts" tangentially as a "work in progress" for WIP Friday), a list of things to count:

One school lunch party relatively successfully accomplished:



Thirty animal-shaped soy butter sandwiches are not as easy to manufacture as one might initially think, as it turns out.



Ten party favors are ready to go, and the climber has been assembled outside for entertainment purposes.



Twenty-four cupcakes are cooling in the kitchen, awaiting decorating tomorrow morning. The above are a few from last year's batch, of which I was inordinately proud. Who knows what I'll do this year? I despair of coming up with a flip-flop decoration...I toyed with the idea of making them all look like flip-flops, but really, they all just looked like peace signs. And since I can't get her to put on sandals to save her life, much less flip-flops, really, why should I slavishly follow the invitation theme?

One messy house remains to be cleaned, and tomorrow I still need to make panzanella, guac, and something else relatively substantial for folks to nibble on. We also have to set up the basement in the very likely event (there is an 85 % chance!) of rain.

At least we can get used to these things slowly, when she's two, and too young to really be upset that we were not properly thematically coordinated across all elements of the party. For now, she's just happy helping us straighten "her space" a little: