What's up y'all? It's Ashley.

I'm Melanie. And I'm Cody.

And this is the Mama's Den. Where motherhood needs real talk. We talk about life, love, and all the stuff we're not supposed to say out loud, even though we'd be thinking it. Whether you're raising kids or a part of the village, this is a space for you. Let's get into it. So what are we talking about? Hi, I'm Cody. Mama to Brooks, Aristotle, and Langston, all of which have had a birthday recently. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Brooks is seven. Aristotle and Langston are five. And we had a great time, sort of. It was busy. It was a busy season. What about y'all? Who are you? My friends?

I'm Melanie and I got two kids. And that is it. The shop is closed. That's it. Closed for business.

Ashley? Hi, this is Ashley Chia. I have four daughters. They are 14.7 5, and almost two.

Almost two.

We're so mellow.

We are.

Okay, about these almost two-year-olds, and my season of Brooks's birthday, October 4th, my

birthday, October 31st, and Aristotle and Langston's birthday, November 12th.

So, number one in my life, yes, I do things very late.

And so of course we knew we were gonna have,

well of course, meaning what's normal for us,

is that we knew we were gonna have like a party for everybody.

And I turned 40, so it was like a not a normal moment.

But the planning for Brooks's in particular came after two of my other friends turned 40 so it was like a not a normal moment but the planning for Brooks's in particular came after

two of my other friends turned 40 so it was just travel and like celebrations and then the twins too

turning five so we plan these parties last minute and all of the details that go into and every time

I'm sitting there like putting up chairs and tables and getting ice you know or asking people to bring ice I'm like damn it we need to like do this differently like in my mind it's like we need I need someone here with me whether I've never had an event producer for the kids birthday but I need like an event producer or I need my assistant or somebody to like help on the day to just make sure that things get done because also the kids are there. I'm not really good at remembering like maybe we need a babysitter for like two hours while we set all this stuff up. It occurred to me after the twins or right before I think I was talking to you, Ashley. And I was like, man, I guess we could like not do a party one day. Have you done a party every year for your kids? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would say some smaller than others, like pandemic, you know, we didn't really do much of anything. But yes, we always have like, you know, some people over balloons, cake. Yes. Yeah, I was going to say, I feel like I've been, all of your children's birthday parties and since they've been born, they've been having a party. You probably have. You probably worked with them.

Bring a bag of ice, please.

No, for real though.

I mean, I, do you, Melanie, do you always do party?

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