Cori's #12

It's the strangest thing... I can say that I gave birth to her, then turned around the other day and saw this beautiful young lady!
I'm so proud of that little muffin. She has always been an incredible person, I knew she was special from the minute I held her in my arms. I love that she was born such an old soul. I know that she was sent to me to teach me so much... and I have honestly tried so hard not to dim her light. There is so much of Mike in her... so logical and smart. She has such a warm and loving heart and is so caring and thoughtful of others. She's never been one to have a set circle of friends, and always wants to include everyone. She is such a good example for her sisters... and for me!
I decided when the girls were little that I would only give them a 'friends' party every few years... on big milestone years. I thought that 5, 8, 12, and 16 would be great years to have the big parties. I didn't think through their age differences, or I might have realized that Cori would turn 12 three days before Addi turned 8. Oops!
When Cori wanted to invite the entire 6th grade over for a party, and I about choked! I thought about it, and knew that logistically there was no way we could accommodate something like that in our house. That kind of party would involve another venue. So after some thought I told her that we could probably do her school class. She was so excited!
As I thought more about it I got nervous. I made her invites and she passed them out. Two days before the party I asked her to ask her classmates if they were coming so I could get an idea of how many kids we would have. She came home and said that EVERYONE she asked was coming! Whoa... okay, there's no turning back at that point!
My AMAZING bro-in-law agreed to come and sing. I thought the kids would have a blast with him. He is so talented!
So I ordered 8 pizzas, got 4 Costco bags of chips, Swedish fish, M&M's, and filled our giant cooler with ice and 48 cans of soda. I made a towering pyramid with ding-dongs and put candles on top! We set up the Wii downstairs, PS2 upstairs, and had our game table upstairs. The kids ended up playing group games altogether... human knot, lap game, wink-em, telephone, telephone charades and our favorite...mafia. Kyle came and rocked the house with some Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, One Republic, and Tom Petty. The girls adored Kyle... swooning. By the end of the night they were playing 'truth or dare' and just decided to tell each other their 'crushes'. It was hilarious!

A few eye opening surprises for me...

#1 The amount of kids at the party with cell phones... and how frequently they use them... and how late they used them! (who are you texting at 11:30pm?)

#2 How open they were... boys and girls... about who they liked or had 'crushes' on. One boy started the telephone game with "So-and-so is the most beautiful girl in the world" I was like REALLY? I don't remember a boy being that bold about his feelings until High School!

#3 The click of girls (whom I affectionately call 'plastics' because of one of my favorite movies) They all have phones, they all have boobs, they all look about 16! I found out they text each other in the morning and decide what to wear... in 6th grade! Wowza!
(The funny thing was that I was torn between wanting my daughter to be accepted by those girls, and so glad that my daughter wasn't like those girls. Totally my own issues surfacing!)

Needless to say... It was a really fun night! Cori had a blast, the kids were so fun... and I learned a thing or two about how much things have changed since I was in 6th grade.