Once, Twice, Three Times for Birthday Cake

Ten years ago I had my last baby. As Youngest’s birthday approached it was a huge deal for me—the last one in the house to join the double digits!! Last year he didn’t want to have a friend party, just a family party. The year before that he had a party at a Laser Tag place. Those places rock when you’re a guest but it was so loud. Very LOUD, especially when some of his guests screamed the Happy Birthday song to him. As we left Hubs said, “Well, now all 3 have had a Laser tag party and we’re done.”

We’ve always been a fan of the “at our house” party and have learned that formal games aren’t really necessary. Planning a sleepover on a Sat worked out well for our youngest 4^th grade son this year because – we had to cancel it and then reschedule due to his on and off fevers (he had either bad bronchitis or walking pneumonia and the 2^nd antibiotic knocked it out the next day). All the boys were able to come the following weekend (which worked out well because I needed more time!).

While still in elementary school I make cupcakes for my sons' the class to eat after lunch at school. As I was making them I realized the batter was enough for 24 cupcakes. “How many kids are in your class?” I asked. He told me 23 or 24. Pheeew, one kid was absent so there were 23 plus the teacher who didn’t want one and so Youngest delivered it to Dad in his room (he will never refuse dessert).

BTW, we affectionately make fun of my MIL behind her back for using the strangest concoction of containers to send muffins or cookies back home with us. Well, I guess that Hubs married someone who is turning out to be like his dear old mom because I found a Star Wars Lego box which was the perfect size. I covered the box in construction paper so that the photos of legos wouldn’t be a distraction since the teacher was the one passing them out. Well, there were still areas on the side that showed Lego Star Wars and ever boy went apesh*t thinking it was a box of Star Wars Legos, even after being told 117 times that it was just cupcakes.

Note to self about a birthday dinner on a weeknight for a 10-year-old who had about 8 wrapped gifts from us to open that night (more on these gifts in another post): just bring home carry out food to allow more time at home and less time waiting for a table at a restaurant with horrible service every time we’ve been there at which Hubs loudly complains to the staff and we end up leaving and eating at Moe’s. Which Youngest loved and we had a good time, especially when he opened our cards.

And one of them was a picture of a hamster on which I drew a “bubble thought” that said, “If you want to bring home one of my brothers or sisters from the pet store, just ask your parents now!” Youngest has been asking for a dog but I knew would love any type of mammal. I told him we’d go to the store the next night, and on his b-day that night he set up its cage.

Back at home the birthday boy only had about an hour left for family cake and presents. He’d told me that for this cake I could buy or make any kind—he did not care (much more interest was in the gifts), but was quite adamant in a request for a homemade one for the party with friends. Here is the cake bought from the grocery store:

When the four friends arrived the following Saturday for his party, we took them bowling and it was a lot of fun. One boy who is the oldest of 3 had never bowled, nor been to a sleepover, nor owns a gaming system (almost like us when my oldest was in 4^th grade). I thanked her for trusting us. There is such a difference when Oldest does new things compared to the age that Youngest gets to experience new things. Our Oldest went bowling at age 6 whereas Youngest was age 2. The first gaming system was bought when Oldest was 9.5 and Youngest was 5. Anyway, I really enjoyed getting to know these other super nice boys.

For the bowling/sleepover birthday cake, I asked Youngest to think of something that represented him. So he asked me to make him a cake of the solar system. I have learned not to freak out over cakes. Boys are easy to please. Maybe I have learned to stay cool about cake making because there are usually kids only at our birthday parties that involve homemade cakes. I knew I had to make a sun and 8 planets and black space. And it had to fit on a large piece of cardboard. I asked him to write out the order of the planets and their coloring. I ran out of yellow food color after the sun so I had no yellow for Venus so made it pinkish instead. I ran out of room to make the last few planets the furthest so it ended up like this:

But it was a hit with pop rock candy on the sun and earth (it pays to have odds and ends on hand from the dollar store) and fruit roll ups twisted into rings on a couple. Space was black food color with sparkly stars.

After the cake the boys were given large glow sticks and went outside to play Man Hunt and I was really tickled that the Middle Schooler and High Schooler joined to play the Hunted. I had to supervise and worried that someone would get hurt while running up and down stairs outside, not being used to younger boys over and running around. They had a great time and I pointed out the full moon and Jupiter shining near it.

The boys all loved looking at this little guy below. I am still the only female in the house.