Birthday blues

Geez...I've heard about it before...but both DS2 and DD have birthdays in the next week and they are crazed. DS2 is just acting out in small ways and DD - well, she's off the charts. I know she's been making bad choices lately, but this is more than that. Anyway, I planned them a party for Friday - and I wanted it to be a nice one. They've witnessed the huge parties that DS1 has had and this year I felt like it was our last chance to have a big blow out. I hired a guy to come make cool explosions and glow in the dark stuff and I got a huge cake and let them invite a ton of people...now I realize it probably wasn't a good idea. Only 5 people are coming to their party (each)...so, they have to deal with the fact that they haven't really worked very hard at making friends. Oh, man...I actually hope they learn a lesson from this...at least it will be worth something then.
At our house, we do an every other year approach to birthdays. One year is family only and they get to pick a dinner out and they get gifts (2 or 3). The other year they get to have a party...so, the kids have only had two parties (counting this upcoming one)...on the party year, our gift is the party...no presents. So, we are in a sporting goods store this weekend and DD walks over with a pair of roller blades and says "this is what I want for my birthday"...I proceed to re-outline the way it works...and she says "yeah, but this is what I want you to wrap"...again, I tell her that she isn't getting wrapped presents from us. She gets mad and yells about not having any money (she lost her allowance to pay us back for the dining room table's glass top, which she decided to scratch up when she was mad) and continues to escalate. Thankfully, we were finished and leaving the store - but oh, the looks you get when a 9 year old is acting 2!

Happy birthday to them...pray for me on Friday!