I miss Party Nazi

Today we made Brianna's cupcakes for her Birthday party at school tomorrow. She picked out Funfetti with pink funfetti icing. Ick! What's wrong with chocolate??? She did pick out chocolate for her at home birthday though. We're all set- we've got the cupcakes made and in the cupcake holders, the capri suns are in the outside fridge, and the Tinkerbelle plates, napkins and Cheetos are in a bag. How exciting her first school party! It really made me think about how many hours I have spent making things for my kids parties. When Chris and Katherine were in Elementary school- I did every single party. It was me and a woman I nicknamed "Party Nazi" She had a son Chris's age and a daughter Katherine's age and every year they were in the same class. We had this unspoken competition about who could bring the coolest stuff to the parties, and go on the most field trips etc. We used to see who could get to the teacher first at Open House to sign up for Party Coordinator. I have spent countless hours making cupcakes that look like spiders, and rice krispie treats that look like pumpkins (orange with green stems of course- they took forever! I enlisted the help of my friend Brenda for that one), cookies that look like rudolph, and easter basket cupcakes with pipecleaner handles, green coconut for the grass, and jelly beans for the eggs. Every year I would pour over magazines and surf the net trying to come up with new and better ideas. I honestly thrived on the competition. Party Nazi finally gave up and resorted to buying her treats, and finally just to providing the plates, napkins, and cups. HA! Slacker! Although, I must admit there was this one time we went to the Pumpkin Farm and she brought hand sanitizer and I didn't. Janet was there, she said the look on my face was priceless. I have never left home without hand sanitizer since. That was probably 8 or 9 years ago! I don't have anyone to compete with anymore- the highschoolers don't do parties, and Katherine is homeschooled now. I don't really know any of the other Preschool moms- but when I do get to know them- they better look out- I have lots of experience! I think I spent the majority of my day in the kitchen today. B and I made 35 cupcakes, 2 birthday cakes. One for tomorrow night at Dad and Janet's- we're having her party early- they're leaving Friday to go to Dallas for 4 days. One for Friday night after Trick or Treating- we have to actually commemerate her actual birthday... Her big party is Saturday. I ordered that cake- Tinkerbelle and it is awesome! I know its kind of ridiculous to have 4 birthday parties when you're 4 years old, but we make a big deal out of birthdays and Christmas. Oh, I also made 2 pumpkin pies (Elton's request) he went to the store after work b/c we were out of bread. He can't just come home with one thing. Apparently he saw some recipe or picture of it at the store. I couldn't find it online. Basically it's pumpkin pie with pumpkin spice pudding on top and then a layer of Cool Whip. We'll see how it turns out.