It's Not About the Decorations

Saturday we celebrated Malachi's 7th birthday soccer style. He had a great time at his first all "boy" party along with his sweet friend Maryn. All boy party.....growing up too fast. I'm sure it won't be the last and I'm sure it won't be long before it will be boys and girls again. 

For starters, I semi forgot the party was this weekend. I mean, I didn't realize it was this close. I thought I still had one more week to plan. And the lie detector test shows that was a lie. 3 days. 3 days is what I had to get things in order. Cookie cakes. I had not ordered cookie cakes and I did not think to order them until Friday. I went in to HEB and asked if they could do two cookie cakes for the following day. She said yes. Whew. Thank you Lord. I told her I wanted soccer balls and them to say Happy Birthday Malachi. Saturday arrives. I go to pick up said cookie cakes and she only has one. I say, I asked for two. She had written down soccer balls but not the quantity. She was super sorry and said she could make one real quick. I smiled and said, don't worry about it. They all taste the same anyway. I walked over, looked at the pre-made cookie cakes and here were my choices: purple and pink flowers or a Christmas tree. The decision wasn't hard. Christmas tree it was. So, these were the cookie cakes that were displayed at the party. 

I'm sure you're thinking no big deal, they are just cookie cakes and they are. But, had this been 6 years ago, 2 years ago, I would have been a raging mad woman. First, the fact that I didn't order in time. Second, because she got them wrong!! What were people going to think? A Christmas tree certainly doesn't match the theme of the party. How embarrassing! There's no way I would have taken a Christmas tree to the party. The FC Dallas cake, yeah, I wrote on that myself. It was just a generic cake until Malachi said, "What about my FC Dallas cookie cake?" Problem solved. I will write on it myself. Crooked. Small. Sloppy. Guess what? He didn't care. He was just happy that it said FC Dallas. 

You see, I use too panic over these parties. Everything had to be perfect. Decorations had to be great. I love decorating and making things for parties. Still do. I never spend a lot of money because I like to make them myself. But I admit, I become a total mad woman until the party starts. Until I realized, no one but me cares about the decorations. No one has ever said oh that looks amazing. Or, ugh, why did you hang that up. Nope. No one cares. Not even the birthday boy himself. Sure, he has his opinions and suggestions on what he wants but me not having that exact decoration has never, not once, spoiled the party for him. Just me. I was the one that would throw a fit. I was the one that would think people would be judging me, until now. 

This year, I just smiled and laughed. Cookie cakes, wrong. So what. They will still taste the same. (Although the soccer ball did have a massive amount of icing.) Thank you gifts for the guests. Well, I tried to make this super cool popcorn with white chocolate and oreos that make it look soccerish in the bag...fail. Now, I have nothing. All well. I'll just get something else. Unless you are my husband, you probably don't understand how big of a deal this is for me. I seriously just went with the flow of the day. 

The moment I realized that all of this didn't really matter... At the end of the party when everyone was getting ready to leave, I turned just in time to see Malachi hop up on this table. Picture it with me. You know how you run and turn to hop up on something without using your hands...this is what he did. And then, he looked at me and smiled. It was a smile I hadn't seen before. Or maybe a smile I hadn't noticed because I was so consumed with myself. It was a big boy smile. (and now I tear up again trying to write this) I smiled back with an overflowing heart realizing, he's growing up before my eyes. The decorations isn't what matters. It's him. He loved every minute of that party. So much he didn't even want to take time to open his gifts until he got home. He never even asked WHY he had a Christmas tree cookie cake. He didn't ask where the little soccer gift bags were. No, all he cared about were the friends that he just spent over an hour playing one of his favorite sports with. 

I'm not saying I won't decorate for any more parties. Hello, I still decorated a little. And I'm sure there will still be a few meltdowns (from me) but I finally get it. What matters most, is the person we are celebrating. As long as these three little people are happy, then my heart will also be happy. Take it from me. Don't make yourself so crazy that you don't even enjoy what's right in front of you. Make the moments count. It's so true what they say, they will be grown before we know it. 

A picture I snapped after our exchange of smile.