Eight is Great! (Part 2)

In terms of a birthday party, Malia had very simple desires this year. She wanted to go swimming at the rec center. I was completely on board with that since it meant all I had to do was provide cake, ice cream and supervision. And Kevin ended up being the one to take the kids to the pool which meant that I was able to skip out on supervision and pick up the much calmer clean up duty instead.

Because we have limits on how many 3rd graders we can 1) fit in our car and 2) we can realistically keep an eye on at the pool, we told Malia her invite list was limited to five friends. When the appointed hour arrived, we only ended up with two-my niece Kate and Acie, a friend of Malia’s from school. Luckily for us, Malia was not disappointed in the least. In fact, she told me yesterday that if Kate was the only one who came, she would be just fine with that. Once again, love that my kids are friends with their cousins! One of the perks of having such a small group was that Acie and Kate warmed up to each other very quickly.

Malia wanted her cakes to match the theme of her party, so today’s cupcakes featured teddy grahams hanging out at the beach. They were simple to put together, Malia loved the way they turned out, and they were delicious which is all I can ask from a cupcake!

She had a great time. It was all very low stress. Success for both of us!