Themed Parties

Today was my sister's baby shower. The theme was "Harujuku Lover's" after Gwen Stefani's clothing line. My sister and I are big Gwen fans, and we also wanted to throw props to our Asian heritage -- even though we are Thai and not Japanese ;-)

Since we were little my sister and I would throw "themed birthday parties". We would spend months upon months creating decorations and coming up with games for our themed birthday parties. 

Our mother would buy us butcher paper from Costco and we would make these elaborate cut-outs and decorations. If the theme was "Where in The World Is Carmen San Diego?" or "The Rainforest" we would draw jungle animals and then decorate our backyard to look like the rainforest.  Our entire house and backyard would be decorated with handmade props and posters and everything would tie back to our party theme. 

Over the years the we had the following birthday parties "Christmas In August", "Disneyland","The County Fair", "Wheel of Fortune" (my dad even built us a spinning wheel and we had our very blonde friend come dressed as Vanna White), "Dillard's Department Store", "Hollywood", and a "1950's Diner" among others. 

There would be competitions and games and often fashion shows. I would make my friends parade up and down our long diving board by the pool -- it was the perfect runway! I had a pink clipboard and I would whip that thing out and tell everybody what to do. I was pretty bossy and assertive as a child! 

My father would spend hours cooking a huge Thai feast, and 10 -15 little girls would come over for several hours of "themed fun". Those birthday parties were magical and the memories are very precious to me. 

Today took me back to those childhood birthday parties. And I can't help but get a little teary-eyed. Two very important people should be here, and they are not. There was no mom to watch my sister open baby presents and play host. There was no dad to help with the food preparation and "catering". And it breaks my heart thinking my sister is going to be a mother and not have her mother here to help show her the way. 

This month marks 9 years. I am not quite sure I am ready for this...but then again we never really are ready for most of the things life throws our way! But I know this is only a smaller piece of the bigger picture....I love you Jaime, you are the BEST sister ever...and I love you mom and dad...you were incredible parents...gone but never, ever forgotten!