Eliza's Card Shower

[shameless plug]

May is a crazy month for me, if for no other reason than our "May babies." Ignoring Mothers Day, graduation ceremonies and parties, planting time in the garden, and whatever else, God sent us three daughters, one right after the other, all in the month of May.

This complicates my life (I mean, more than the regular complexity of having six kids and so on). I'm big on birthday celebration. I like to make a big "Tuh-Dah!" for my kids, my husband, my mom, my vast quantities of brothers and sisters, my girlfriends, my visiting teaching ladies, and the never-ending queue of nieces and nephews. Of course, my time, talents, money and attention span are much more limited than my enthusiasm or my extended family, so I, uhm, reign it in A LOT. I haven't been on top of my calendar enough to get out timely Christmas cards for two years, much less birthday cards!

Anyway, Lucy's birthday is over and happily remembered. Yvy's is under control (helps that she's going to be 3, and we're going a-visitin' that weekend, so everything will feel like a party). So now I turn my focus to Eliza. She will be five. This makes my job easier-but-different, because our family has a fun tradition of The Fifth Birthday Card Shower.

It works like this:

I send out a plea for help to friends and family, and they mail in sweet postcards/letters/cards to my lucky little youngster. Birthday Kid gets first dibs on getting the mail for about a week and a half. We tape all the mail they receive up on the wall in the dining room. We take pictures. It's tons of fun.

Eliza knows it is coming. I have made great effort to make it big and satisfying, because

1. She is the LAST birthday in the last week of the month
   
2. She remembers Lucy's card shower from two years ago
   
3. Hyrum & Gabba have been building it up for her for weeks
   
4. She is Phogle No. 4, so sometimes she gets the short shrift
5. because it's fun for me, too (I'll admit it)
   

If you want to be part of this monument to a little girl's fifth birthday, we welcome one and all!

If you are already part of the postal awesomeness,
THANK YOU SO MUCH!

If you haven't already mailed your card, is it too weird for me to ask that you slip 5 pennies into the envelope? Eliza is very keen on amassing birthday money, and she is going through a phase where she loves to count coins and jingle them in her pocket and haul them around in the little green coin purse that Lucy gave her (it still has *Lucy* written on it in permanent marker, but Eliza doesn't care, and affectionately refers to it as her wallet). Getting a few birthday coins in a few cards would be a serious bonus.

If this is the twenty-third time you've heard this from me, I'm so terribly sorry. I can't remember who I have talked to about this, and who I haven't. Mark handed out a cute little invitation at his office. I've posted it on Facebook. I've mentioned it at Church and to the lady living across the street. But I'm not too proud to repeat myself, if it means I can make this Card Shower fabulous.

[remember, this is a card shower: all you do is drop something in the mail! Address it to Eliza. If you don't have our address, leave a comment or e-mail me, and I'll pony up.]