Glitter, Pink Eye and Birthdays

Well, my oldest is twelve today. Wow, it doesn't seem like twelve years ago we gave birth to a beautiful, sweet girl. She was such a sweet, happy, loving baby, and has turned into a sweet, happy, loving preteen! :)
She had her friends over for a sleepover...and while making their craft, a little sprinkle of glitter on one friend turned into a glitter fight, thrown all about my house. What stuck to their clothes, later stuck to my furniture and carpet, and then the dogs...it was virtually everywhere. My birthday girl and her little sis cleaned and cleaned while others played. Mine did their best, but still, there is glitter in every crack and crevice of my kitchen-between each and every hard wood plank. After all their cleaning, they shook the tablecloth out...on my back porch steps and each time the dogs went out and came back in, they brought the glitter back... :) We also carried on our usual sleepover traditions, as mentioned in an earlier post: the ordering of pizza, trail mix during a Garfield movie, and the trip through the drive through in our pjs!
All in all, our oldest had a good time. Although, after the first friend arrived, our daughter took her up to see the three year old hamster (which is old for a hamster) and found it had passed away. Our daughter was quite sad. What a time to find him that way! The next guest promptly heard, "I just found out my hamster died!" when she walked through our door, but then, after I had cleaned everything up and my husband had buried him (elephant was his name) in our shade garden, she seemed better. Then yesterday when all had died down, she said to me "I don't think Elephant's death has sunk in yet." and cried. It was "just a hamster", but she's a very caring girl and she's sad. Poor dear, the death of pets always made me sad, also.
At 2am on the sleepover night, my youngest called me into the bathroom because she had a bloody nose. My focus was to stop it and then she said, "I feel like a have a piece of glitter in my eye." I hadn't noticed her eye, and she referred to big sister's throwing of glitter earlier. I checked her eye and found...pink eye. Here I inform, as I haven't much lately: pink eye is an infection in the eye that causes it to swell, itch, burn, redden, and have drainage. It is very contagious! Conjunctivitis is its less common name: http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/infections/eye/conjunctivitis.html
So, I took her to the dr. first thing the next morning and she came in, promptly looked in our daughter's ear! I was thinking...her eye? Then the doc. said, "does your ear hurt?" And my daughter said no...but the doctor said she had "quite an ear infection" in her ear!! She said that pink eye can show itself as a symptom after an upper respiratory infection or illness. Although, our daughter had no symptoms of ear problems, stuffy or runny nose, or anything like that, she did get an ear infection and then it presented itself as pink eye, too! So, for a child who rarely gets ear infections-I think her last was three years ago!-she got two antibiotics! And I've warned all the children we've come in contact with, as it can be spread easily. We are all thoroughly washing hands here, more than usual! And hoping my twelve year old doesn't come down with it on her birthday! :) The youngest is home for the day, which will be "fun" until about lunchtime, but can't go to school until she's been on antibiotics for 24hrs. I have a craft box all set up so she can "create" whatever she likes...so we'll see what she comes up with! :)
We got up a little early today so we could start our oldest's special day by having her open her gifts from us. Then tonight we will head out to a restaurant that serves breakfast, because that's her favorite. Then, this weekend, we will have her birthday party with family.