Surprise . . .

We had a surprise Spa Birthday party for Hayden today.  There were six girls including Hayden and Ally.  After changing into their spa cover up, we treated them to a chocolate face mask complete with cucumbers on their eyes.  I tried to get them to relax and enjoy the moment, however, I'm not sure 9 year olds can appreciate the chance to relax like a 36 mother of 4 can.  I must say that if I had Hannah Montana playing in the background I might not be able to relax either.  So after Robin "hosed" the girls off, we started 2 in foot baths and 2 at the manicure tables.  Nanny helped 2 girls make bath salts and Nina was crowd control.  Robin and I sat down to do nails.  We  let the girls choose from polish, fake nails, stickers or any combination.  The first 2 (Abbey and Hayden) chose fake nails with a couple of stickers.  No big deal.  So I'm trying to keep everybody "moving" along and get up to empty the foot baths, massage their feet and put their socks on.  I'm not big on feet, but try to keep the gag reflex under control.  We clean the buckets and refill them so the next 2 can soak.  Meanwhile, Robin has started on the next manicure and I get back to my seat as well.  Nanny has finished up the craft and takes over crowd control while Nina gets ready to make pizzas.   

Did I mention Ally was at my nail station?  She started at Robin's but didn't feel she had the right qualifications based on a brief interview so she moved over to my station.  For those of you who might not be aware, I keep my nails cut to the nub.  I get Ally taken care of with fake nails and various colors, in a pattern though, and she seems somewhat content. I start on the next girl, because Nina(who also isn't the fondest of feet) takes over the foot massages.  Ally pops back up at the manicure table.  One of her "blues" is falling off.  She tries to gently press it back on and, of course, smears the polish.  She wants me to push it on and paint over the smear.  After several layers of blue paint the nail succumbs to the weight and falls off never to return to the nail.  I tell her we will fix it later.  Just so you know, when "later" came, she had plucked off all the nails because they were bothering her.  

All the girls are massaged and manicured and have designed their pizzas.  Into the oven they go and up to the playroom the girls go.  We get the plates ready and the girls eat their lunch.  We chase it down with Chocolate Avalanche Cake and Hayden opens her presents.  The parents arrive and the girls go.  Nina, Robin and Nanny clean up the kitchen for me, thanks guys, and we hang out talking until Ben calls that he is returning with the boys.  For some reason, everybody leaves.  

When Ben gets home, the boys are asleep.  They went to do a lot of big boy stuff and were exhausted.  I took the opportunity to rest myself.  My sweet Hayden made me a bag of specially designed bath salts and wrote me a very sweet thank you while I was asleep.  I hang on to stuff like this so I can look at it  when she and I aren't seeing eye to eye.  Overall it was a fun birthday and I think Hayden really liked it.