Birthday, More Frustration (funny), and A Visit to Local Animal Shelter

I've been planning Abbie's 8th Birthday Party for several weeks. We decided to base the party on The Daring Book for Girls (plus other ideas that I gathered here and there). Warning: the next part will sound like over-the-top bragging, but I am just setting the stage for the frustrating part. I designed the invitations myself and mailed them to 2 nieces and every girl in Abbie's class. If I wasn't thinking about the party, I was planning some aspect, making lists, cleaning the house, deep cleaning Abbie's room, buying supplies, crossing things off my list, researching activities (instructions), more cleaning, testing each project for age appropriateness and to make sure the instructions made sense, more shopping, cleaning, planning, cleaning, planning. I LOVE themed parties, and I will humbly give myself a pat on the back for doing a good job at tying all the details into the theme. We decided this would be a 5 hour party in order to do all the girly activities we had planned and to give parents a break while their daughter was at the party. I planned for lunch and a snack and had additional chaperones lined up to help me with each activity. We made fluffy flip flops, God's Eyes, friendship bracelets, played outside, played with Lego, made each girl a pretty hair do, and had *2 treasure hunts. About an hour into the party, I was regretting planning a 5 hour party, but everyone soon settled down and the rest of the party went smoothly. All the activities went well. Everyone had fun and played well together.
*The frustrating part - remember me saying how much time I spent planning for the party? Well, about 2 days before the party, Paul said, "Why don't we do a treasure hunt?" I said, "I'll have to revise the party schedule to add that activity, but it sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately, I don't have time to plan that so why don't you take charge of that activity?" Paul said okay and then went off and did something else. The day before the party, I left Abbie with Paul and headed to town one final time to get the last items needed for the party. When I came home, Paul had planned the whole treasure hunt. He had drawn a huge colorfu map of the outside of the house, written his clues, bought the treasure chest and the treasure chest items. Each clue was written in "pirate speak" and were very clever. In about 10 minutes, he created a shark out of a plastic tub and cooked 2 large pots of spaghetti to make shark guts (the girls would have to stick their hands into the shark mouth and search through the guts for clues inside plastic Easter eggs). At the end of the hunt, they would find a treasure box full of goodies like kaleidiscopes, ring pops, bubbles, candy necklaces, yo-yos, chocolate gold coins. I know the girls liked my activities, but they LOVED the treasure hunt that Paul creatively threw together in a short time. They loved it so much that they begged him for another treasure hunt. So in the last hour of the party, he wrote more clues with a different twist than the first hunt and hid them in different places. They loved it! I keep teasing him about being a creative genius.
In other news, we took our two bunnies to live on my brother's farm. I feel sad about this decision. My own moral code instructs me to research any animal I plan to get and pay for all it's vet bills and take care of it until the end of it's long life. I have broken my code, and I feel guilty. Paul wanted the bunnies out of the house. At the beginning, I thought they were so clean and unstinky (they used a litter box). But over time, the large room they were in acquired an odor and they started dumping their litter box, and not getting along very well. The breeder told me this might happen with 2 females, and I'd have to separate them, but Paul had no intention of building a rabbit hutch. My brother has outdoor animal pens perfect for bunnies (he used to have some) and he offered to take them. The problem was - how to convince Abbie that this was a good idea. On the spur of the moment, Paul told Abbie that she could have a kitten if she let the bunnies go live with Uncle Craig. She reluctantly agreed. We went to the animal shelter today, and I petted and talked to every cat in the place and petted almost all the dogs (and baby talked to them too). It is kitten season and there were so many choices! We all had a different favorite. We found ourselves saying, "I really like this one, but it's your choice, Abbie." I'm sure she was feeling the pressure. I held two little kittens that were like rag dolls - sweet, cuddly, quiet, limp, adoring eyes, fluffy, sweet.... We tried to pay attention to disposition instead of looks. There were 2 tiny white kittens with blue eyes. They were so tiny and kind of pitiful and needed cleaning up. For several months now (ever since finding the Kitty Committee blog), I've been feeling the urge to be a foster mom for kittens. I need a baby in the house in a big way. We didn't bring home a kitten today because we needed time to let it all soak in, but Abbie and I will go back tomorrow to make the final selection. I'm only supposed to bring home one kitten, right?
The dogs - there were so many! I feel so bad for all the unwanted animals of the world. I petted all of the dogs that would come to their door. Some I worried would maul my hand, but I stuck it in there anyway. I shed a few tears for a couple of dogs. One worker told me that they get about 1,000 animals a month! Holy Moly! And this is NOT a no-kill shelter. I asked if kittens get more time, but she said no, because adult cats have a better immune system and are more hardy. Makes sense. I held two kittens that she said had been there almost too long already. I can't swallow just thinking about it. How will I just bring home one kitten tomorrow?
I do plan to talk to the director about fostering. My dream is to have my own animal sanctuary someday (no-kill), and until then, I plan to start helping now.