Don't Be Surprised When Maile's Crying In A Month Because Her Mouse Is Dead

I know I've been writing about Maile a lot lately and I just want you to know it's not because she's my favorite.

It's just that she's the most interesting character in the house right now. No one wants to hear about Kainoa's current obsession with Elmo or how he screams at me to give him "dat" all day and how I have no idea what "dat" is.

kainoa: "Want dat mommy!!! Want dat!!"

me: What do you want Kainoa?? Do you want your blanket? Do you want juice? Do you want a banana? Do you want a girlfriend? WHAT? What do you want?

kainoa: NOOO!!! DAT mommy DAT!

me: Kainoa I don't what DAT is and I have no idea what you're talking about.

kainoa: WAAAAAA!!!

See what I mean. Boring.

And no one wants to hear about how Laina begs me to print her coloring pictures all. day. long...and how she only wants coloring pictures of dogs and how her obsession with dogs has not faded in the four years I've known her, which leads me to believe that perhaps she was one in another life.

Since nobody wants to know about that stuff it leaves me with no choice but to talk about Maile's birthday party...a post that got pushed aside due to me being lazy about it.

I spent the morning of Maile's birthday decorating so that she'd be surprised with a party when she got home from school.

I thought it would be a terrific idea to go to the pet store and pick her up her own pet mouse. She had been talking about REALLY wanting a little white one and they look harmless enough so...

Luckily I have a wonderful assistant who was able to help me put the fancy pink cage together. Actually her niece happened to be with her and knew ALLLL about rodents and how to put their cages together. She was actually a huge help.

And she cracked us up because she would say things like, "You know these things don't live that long so don't be surprised when Maile's crying in a month because her mouse is dead."

I kind of wanted to adopt her.

Next I surprised my girl at school with a happy meal, a balloon, and cupcakes. I realize I'm completely setting myself up for failure in the years to come. There's no way I'm going to be able to keep this up and Kainoa is totally going to get shafted. Poor kid.

I put the finishing touches on the party when I got home...thankfully Michelle from Le Poppy Design came to my rescue as far as decorations go. Michelle is one of my little sister's best friends and she's seriously amazing at crafts and decor. She puts together party packages on Etsy that are tailored to each individual child's interests.

Nice right!?!

Maile requested a "seal" birthday party. Seriously. Where am I supposed to get seal birthday decor?

I emailed Michelle just days before the party and she she emailed me back and was all "no problem, I'm your girl!"

And then like one hour later she emailed again to say, "and fyi do not google search "baby seals" unless you want to see men clubbing the creatures...tell Maile thanks for that."

And being the intellect that I am I thought...'what kind of men go clubbing with baby seals!?!'...thinking it was some sick spin on sickos and their animal fetishes. I mean come on I don't know what kind of crazy things people are doing these days and if clubbing with seals was a new trend I wanted to know about it...so I did what Michelle discouraged me from doing and found a disturbing sight indeed.

Turns out men are not clubbing WITH baby seals so much as they are actually "beating" seals with clubs...as in to death...with giant bats...and then they photograph it...and put it on the internet.

Awesome.

Thank you Maile.

I SO would have rather seen some men and seals drinking margaritas together. It just makes more sense to me like that.

Michelle still somehow managed to create two amazing seal inspired banners and cake toppers for my girl!

Thanks Le Poppy!

ps Here's the happy moment when Maile was presented with little "White Eye"...her mouse.

ps again "White Eye" now has a sister that Laina lovingly refers to as "Apple". More to come on that later...

ps once more If Apple turns out to be a boy, you all are getting baby mice for Christmas...just sayin.