Big Birthday Weekend

For at least a month now the girls have obsessed about their birthday.  They demanded I send their aunts and uncles a birthday list about a month ago.  They have been discussing options for their birthday parties daily.  Every day when I walk them to school they talk about their birthday. 
This week we decided it was time to actually plan their birthday parties.  The girls have a friends party and a family party.  This year for their friends party, they decided to have a sleepover.  We told them they could only invite two friends.  I'm sure at some point we'll have ten giggly girls sleeping in their room, but this is our first sleepover, so we're keeping it small.
They have a list of activities they have planned from decorating headbands to eating pizza on the couch while watching a movie.  They planned every part of it.  One friend is sleeping over, but we're still waiting to hear about the other one.  They are still a little young for sleepovers, so if she's not ready we'll have her over for all the stuff except sleeping over.
The family party was a bit harder to plan.  We had a "we're having a party on this date at this time, yet we don't know where" save the date.  Our backyard -- the site of all previous birthday parties -- is still a construction zone.  We held out hope that it would be completed until this week.  We finally decided we needed a new location for the birthday party.  We found a nearby park district facility with batting cages, miniature golf and a party room.  It is now the site of the girls' eighth birthday bash this weekend.
After a few weeks of sadness, this weekend is all about fun.  It's time to lift the fog and start the party.