Mental Pictures From a Circus Party

The circus party has come and gone. As I look at the pictures from our party, I am reminded of blogs you read, were you see posts filled with perfect pictures, clean homes, well behaved, perfectly posed children and you are left thinking 1. wow, she has it all together or 2. what aren't they telling me, what's behind those too good to be true pictures.

Looking at the pictures of my party, I am shocked at the story they tell. The story of the well executed party. The cute decorations. The people smiling and having a good time.

The mental pictures I have of the party tell another story. My mental pictures answer the 'what's behind those too good to be true pictures'.  They can be summed up like this:

{12} balloon animals untwisted and used as weapons to attack our guests.  I did NOT see that coming.  See {9}.

{11} presents being openned, all at once, cards thrown to the side, papers up in the air.  All while {4} and {9} were taking place.  Mom, nearing a meltdown minutes after this picture was taken, is left to determine who gave what later.

Photo taken before present opening chaos broke out.

{10} minutes to extract a splinter out of a little girl's foot.  I wonder how that could have happened...

{9} the 4 and 5 year old brothers {that adds up to 9}, who had the presence of 10 kids.  Neighbors {whom we don't know other than the courtesy wave across the fence}, who that morning we extended the 'hey, why don't you stop over later' invite, who were jumping off the arm of my sofa as if it were a rocket launch, while their father said completely oblivious in our yard, trusting I was a competent babysitter and party hostess.

Yep...this sofa.

{8} pizzas ordered, none of which I had a chance to sit down and eat mainly because of {9}.

{7}, seventh, hottest day of the year.  I sweated through my $5 Goodwill dress I had scored in Febuary. 

{6} holes punched through the punch box before the party started.  Luckily my talented sister fixed all of them and no one was the wiser.

{5} hours before the party started, we found out the cotton candy machine we rented didn't work.  Yes we did have a cotton candy machine *which might explain {9} a bit better.

{4} kids having hurl yourself on the floor screaming tantrums as they were getting dragged out of the party {I happily would have left with any of those parents and let their kids stay in my place}.

I have mental pictures of the real deal, this is similar to how they looked {Grace age 2}.

{3} pairs of shoes left unclaimed at the end of the night.  That means, 3 kids left our party shoeless.

{2} people that asked what Up Right Step meant.  It's supposed to read:  Step Right Up.  I listened to the advice of my husband and arranged the words going up the stairs.  His logic was, you want them to step.right.up. 

{1} mom about to have a nervous breakdown, who will make a full recovery and  focus on the {1} birthday girl that smiled and laughed the entire day.

Actual pictures to come :)