My first mistake was deciding to walk to the party. The party was held in the parking lot of the local elementary school, so I figured that (1) it must be within walking distance, since the school buses for it don't pick up kids on our street, and (2) there would be no parking since the party was being held in the parking lot. We were okay for the first part of the trek, but when the sidewalk ended a couple of blocks away from the school, Glitter got tired. Then when we rounded the corner, I saw all these cars with families in them driving up to the side parking lot. D'oh. Oh well, too late now.
As soon as we got in, we joined the line for name tags and got tickets for the free food. Then the line fed directly into the food line. That seemed great, because I wouldn't have to worry about loosing the tickets. Unfortunately after we got three plates of food, turns out the girls weren't hungry. But I couldn't easily wander around carrying all the food, so I told the girls we couldn't do any of the activities until they had eaten.
Both girls ate really slowly, and Glitter ended up not even finishing her hot dog. Then Sparkle said she was going to throw her empty plate away. Okay. The garbage can was just behind us. Except that she didn't come right back as expected, so I freaked. The place was really crowded and I didn't know where she was! I called her several times, but she must not have heard over the loud music. Finally I spotted her wandering around but she still didn't hear me, so I told Glitter, who was still eating with a plate balanced on her knees, to sit still, and I got up and gathered Sparkle back to our spot.
When the girls didn't want to eat anymore, we got to see the fun stuff. The girls got to climb around a fire engine. One of the firefighters got geared up so they kids could see what they looked like. Glitter watched in awed fascination, but was too scared to do more than watch. The girls collected coloring books and they got their faces painted. I even won a door prize of a $20 gift card!
Then Sparkle started begging for cotton candy. The line was really, really long, and I told Glitter that she couldn't have any cotton candy since she didn't finish her hot dog. It didn't seem fair to make Glitter stand in the long line when she wouldn't get any cotton candy, so I left Sparkle in line and took Glitter to the nearby jumpy castle. Once she was safely inside, I checked on Sparkle, and she was fine, but had somehow slipped back in the line several places. Oh well, she's homeschooled and doesn't really know how to stand in line.
I returned to Glitter just before they made all the kids get out because it was dark and the kids were bumping into each other. Glitter got her shoes, and we went back to Sparkle. A Sparkle with blood pouring down her foot and leg.
What! I did a quick assessment. Other than the blood, she seemed fine. She wasn't crying. She was standing normally. I didn't see anything that she could have scraped against. What happened? She told me that she scratched it so much that it bled. Oh. The mosquitoes were having a party of their own. She must have scratched open a bug bite. Then she showed me where she got the dress bloody. It was a lot of blood for a bug bite, but maybe the mosquito had just fed. I asked if she wanted to leave, since I didn't bring my purse and didn't have any bandaids or such. But Sparkle wanted to stay in line to get cotton candy, so we did.
Then we had the long walk home. By then it was dark. Glitter was tired, but I couldn't carry her over the uneven dirt in the darkness. She was a trooper and walked all the way home. Once home, Sparkle wiped off the blood, and I put her dress in the washing machine. The girls took a shower and Sparkle got a band-aid for her boo-boo, which looked much better now that the blood was gone. Turns out it wasn't a bug bite, but rather Sparkle had scratched off a scab.
Finally I tucked both girls into bed, and collapsed myself. I'm really glad that Wander will be home tonight.
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