I received an evite last week for “Alex.”  I immediately asked the boys, “Who has an Alex in their class?”  B said, “I do!”  He has an Alexandra in his class.  Ok that settles that.  Should we go to this party?  I don’t really know her.  The party is 30 minutes away.  I’ll sit on it and ask around.  I start asking some of the other moms in B’s class if they are going to Alex’s party.

Mom #1: “OMG! I must’ve missed the evite!  C is really good friends with her.  She’ll kill me if we miss it.  Can you forward it to me? ”  Yup, done.

Mom #2: “I never get evites.  My email blocks them.  Can you forward it to me?”  Yup, done.

Mom #3: “We didn’t get it.”  Her son would have same relationship to Alex as B.  Makes no sense.

Mom #4: “Yes, we are going!”  Finally one person we know.

Ok, so what’s going on here? How did my son get invited when these other kids who are clearly friends with her and know her weren’t invited?  Does this girl have a weird crush on him and he was the only boy invited to an all girl party?  If that’s the case, we’re screwed because he will hate some butterfly princess rainbow party and I’ll be stuck giving up a Saturday morning for a party he hates.  And who is Alex anyway?

Oh well.  I decide we should go.  I RSVP yes.  I tell B.  He comes home that day and said that he told Alex(andra) he was going to her party.  She said, “No you’re not.”  I asked him, thinking who is this brat kid and I’m so pissed I said we were going to her party, “Did she hurt your feelings?”  B responded sadly, “Yes.”  Great.  Now I hate this kid and I have to buy her a present and waste a Saturday.

Now the other moms start coming back to me.

Mom #1: “I wasn’t on the evite.  I’d feel weird emailing her if it wasn’t a mistake.  Maybe they had to limit the numbers or something?”  What!?! How could B be invited and not her good friend???

Mom #2: “I can’t go to the party so I emailed the mom to let her know.”

Mom #3: “I guess the mom still hates me because I never went to Alex’s birthday party last year.  I guess I’m the only dumbass who invited the whole class to my kid’s party this year.”

Mom #4: “S is so excited!  She bought a princess for her and made a picture of her holding hands with Alex.”

Now the word is out that I’m totally perplexed by this party and who’s invited and who’s not.  It’s not adding up and in classic Hannah fashion, I’m completely fixated on it.

THEN I get a text from Mom #4 saying that the parents’ names on the evite don’t match Alexandra’s…she thinks this may be a different Alex…the boy Alex, who we thought moved to Italy, who was in class with B and Mom #4’s daughter last year.  I called her screaming, “WHAAAAAT?!?!!  Didn’t that Alex move to Italy?  How’s that even possible?”    But we check the emails and she’s right.  It’s a different Alex!  And the other moms I’ve been sending the evite to weren’t in this particular Alex’s class with us last year and have no idea who he is; thus, they weren’t invited.  Are you kidding me!?!

I break the news to the others.

Mom #1: “OMG! Hysterical!”  Good thing she didn’t listen to me when I insisted she email Alexandra’s mom because I just knew it was a mistake that she didn’t get the evite.

Mom #2: “So I RSVP’d to a party I wasn’t even invited to.”

Mom #3: “Guess it’s not because the mom hates me.”

Mom #4: “I’m not going now because my kid doesn’t even remember an Alex from last year.  I have to talk to Alexandra’s mom because I told her we were going to her party.”

I’m dying.  That means: 1 kid who thought she was Alex’s best friend was almost crushed.  Another mom, whose kid wasn’t even invited, responded to a mom she didn’t know saying her kid couldn’t go to the party.  A third mom thought Alex’s mom hated her for not going to her kid’s party last year.  And a 4th mom bought a princess gift and her daughter doesn’t even remember Alex from last year and is now bailing on the party.  And here I am hating this Alexandra kid for telling my sweet little son he wasn’t going to her party…MAYBE because she wasn’t actually having a birthday party!!!!!!

And there you have it.  Cross-check your evites moms.  Turns out Alex moved to Edgewater, NJ not Italy.  That’s what happens when your fact checking comes from 5 year olds.  As I’m getting ready to post this, I run into another mom from last year’s class.  She said she bought a barbie for an Alexandra she thought was having a party and has since donated it.

Who knew!?! Alex, Alexander, Alexandra, this year, last year, Italy, Edgewater.  What a mess.  Happy Birthday to all Alex’s everywhere, especially those actually having birthdays this weekend.