Streamers and Red Juice Stains

It's amazing how differently children and parents see a birthday party! Emma had a birthday party on Saturday afternoon and I'm always amazed at how a meagre number like 12 can somehow magically increase to double that size once everyone has come through the door! Especially when they're all 11 and giggly and exciteable. I think every block of flats/apartments has at least one dragon lurking somewhere in the building... For us it's a lady we call exciteable. To say she's a little loony, would be the equivalent of saying that a hurricane Katrina is a strong wind... Way, way understated. She had this old car that caught alight and these guys ran out the building to help extinguish the fire (at great personal risk, I might add) and she came yelling down the driveway, screaming at them as though they'd actually started the fire instead of putting it out. She kept yelling "You're not my brother, you're not my brother," and then she frantically ran up and down the stairs yelling about somebody doing this on purpose and how she had no car. I think she even blamed her husband at one point! Anyway, so the party started off REALLY well, by the girls being confronted by this crazy woman yelling at them. They were all standing at the entrance waiting for everyone to arrive, eventually everyone gets here and the table is strewn with delicious goodies and balloons are everywhere and streamers are flying - it was really fantastic for Emma. I had to stay in another room... Not being a tidy person, I found the coldrink spillage, the sticky marshmallows in the carpet, the compressed biscuit and chip mush that was being smeared deep into the non existent carpet fibres, brought on an unfamiliar and overwhelming urge to run around the party with the vacuum cleaner strapped to my back and the carpet cleaner and cloth in my available hand! We took marshmallows and put them on wooden skewers, then dipped them in chocolate and put sprinkles on top. Note to self: BAD IDEA... Keep the skewers away from kids till they turn 21. Even then it's debatable as to whether or not they'll actually be responsible enough with them... One kid was walking around with them in her hair. I think she must have had 4 in her hair.
Do you know how you're told that you can only fold paper so many times? Well, I'd always assumed that the same was probably true about cutting paper. Well, you're never to old to learn. It was like they'd taken the streamer and put it lengthways through a shredder. There were bits and pieces EVERYWHERE.
So, it was an exciting day. Not one that I'd want to repeat in a hurry, which is such a pity because Rebecca's is in 54 days...