Turning Nine — My Big Party
By Olivia M. age 9
“Ahhh, too bright!” I said as I slowly started to wake up. It was a sunny, hot and humid day in July. I checked my clock. It was 8 a.m. But then I remembered today was the day I would have my 9th birthday party. The theme of my party was water parks. I sprang out of the bed and peeped into my brother’s room. He was still half asleep. I jumped off each step and went down the stairs. My parents were already up. I chose what I wanted for breakfast. I dug into pancakes with sticky sweet dripping maple syrup on them. Once everyone was up and had eaten their breakfast, we went to the store.
On my list was 13 cupcakes, chocolate or vanilla; 13 Lunchables; a variety pack of chips, like Doritos, Lays Original and Barbecue, and some Pirate Booties. I also needed three balloons and a ten-pack of water balloons. First was food. I went to the bakery section and picked out 13 big fresh cupcakes. Then, Lunchables. Past the produce section, next to the meat, I got 10 ham-and-cheese and four pizza Lunchables. The chips were right behind us, so we put those in the cart, too. Second to the last item on the list was three balloons. I spent at least 5 minutes inspecting all the balloons. Eventually, I chose the pineapple and dolphin and Happy-Birthday shaped balloon. Lastly, the water balloons. They were near the check-out counter, so when we got in the line, I threw them in the cart. It took a while to pay for everything because we had so much stuff, but we made it out of there. On our way out, I was holding the balloons and was not paying attention. I accidentally went too close to another cart and the Happy-Birthday balloon hit the sharp edge. BOOM! The balloon exploded. The sound was so loud I’m pretty sure people from outside the building could probably hear it! Running in embarrassment, I tried to get to the car as fast as I could.
Once I got to the car, I waited for the rest of my family. My dad unlocked the door and put all the stuff in the trunk. I jumped into my seat and my dad drove us home.
When we got home, I realized we had a problem. The party started at 3 and it was 1:30 and we still needed to eat lunch, get swimsuits on and set everything out outside. That, in total, would take at least an hour. I started panicking. We had to get moving!!! I quickly gobbled up my PBJ sandwich while my parents set out the Slip ‘n Slide and tables.
After I finished lunch, I grabbed as many slime kits as possible that we’d ordered ahead of time. I dropped them on the table that we’d set up in the garage. The Pineapple and Dolphin-shaped balloons were spaced apart, in front of the gazebo. We put a table out for food. I carefully filled the water balloons with refreshing cold water then found a bucket to put them in.
Shortly after that people showed up. Some kids brought their swimsuits, while others had them on. The kids who needed to change went into the house and changed in the bathroom. Some kids were more interested in the slime than the water balloons and Slip ‘n Slide. The kids who liked the water balloons including me had an epic water balloon fight. We went all over the place trying to hide and hit the other players.
After an hour, we had chips and Lunchables. We didn’t get much pizza Lunchables, so there were kids fighting over them. We had four pizza Lunchables and five kids wanted them. We already gave three kids the pizza Lunchables and my brother and my friend wanted the last one. I gave it to my friend, but then my brother started throwing a temper tantrum, so my brother got the last one. For the drink, we had some chilled Capri Suns. We put those in a cooler. After everyone finished the Lunchables and chips, we got out the cup cakes, put a candle on mine, and the other kids sang Happy Birthday to me. Then we stuffed our faces with the cup cakes!
Soon after that, kids changed to their back-up clothes and started getting ready to leave. Parents started showing up. When a kid’s parent was here, I gave them a goodie bag with candies and a bouncing ball in it.
After kids left, I got to open gifts. There were a bunch of different presents. Some were weird, some cool. In the end, we had a great birthday party!
