fake birthday party day

 

i don’t even know where to begin. so settle in, dear readers.  if you’re a first-timer to wash, rinse, & repeat, pick another starting point so you’ll have some frame of reference before you hop into this one.  it was fake birthday party day.  FAKE? why yes, fake.  because my little literal linguist (i love some alliteration, don’t you) can’t get his head around the fact that its alright to have his party on a day other than his birthday (which we’ve done for 5 previous years but it seems to matter this year). and because its not really his birthday, because that’s monday and we’re not allowed to change time. yada yada yada, moving on…

overall- i proclaim it a smashing success.  well, that is, if you don’t count that it was about 10˚ colder than it was forecast to be.  or that the wind was blowing in about 15-20 mph. directly into the little pavilion i had rented out at burns park. so after arriving about 40 minutes before the party, hubby and i wrassled with cheap plastic tablecloths and tape- trying to get them onto the picnic tables.  after ½ a roll of tape and a parachute-type effect (of which we were looking for smooth table covered effect), we decided to ditch the tablecloths and let the kids rough it on the bare picnic tables. (gasp) i know, best laid plans… 

cake: the cake was a work another mom creation. although a break in tradition from years past, it took me a little over an hour to decorate it (as opposed to 3-4 hrs in years past). and in another tradition break, i started well before 9 p.m. in fact, i don’t want to brag or anything, but it was in the fridge before 8 last night. complete. 

and no, the chocolate chips were meant to be rocks, not dinosaur poop like many of you attendees guessed.

(it got a little smashed on top, because the lava looked like it was erupting before- i swear

locale: we held the party out at the park for several reasons.  first, it was supposed to be nice.  second, cole has a rather large social circle now, being that he’s approaching his 6^th year on this little hunk of dirt we call earth.  so when we started hashing out the guest list about 2 months ago, i could quickly see this little shin-dig escalate into a full blown event complete with rope-lines, bouncers, and britney crashers.  so after careful consideration and several “he’s so cool” and “xxx is my best friend” and 37 invites later (thank you Lord for the evite founders), we had our event set. other than the cold and the wind (and one small run-in with fireants on david) we had a great location. 

friends:  truly, this is the best part. all the cool kids showed up. his aphrodite/model girlfriend was there (that’s her in the red bow- she was lovin on him a bunch at the present unveiling). and his ‘other’ special girlfriends as well. they all played, laughed, ate, and drank hi-c juice boxes (ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but there’s 10% juice in them) until they were sick. kids had 2nds and 3rds on cake. no one got into a fistfight- the hallmark of a successful kids’ birthday.  i dread throwing one of these for his 21st…

gifts: every year i’m amazed when we get to this point in the party.  because all kids (and grownups)  gather around the birthday boy and start screaming and elbowing for prime real estate- to see what’s in all those gift sacks. the oooohhhhs and ahhhhhhs and ‘look its a transformer’ and ‘wow- i want one of those’ and ‘i already have thats’ and ‘i got him thats’. and i feel like it went well..  but everyone had fun.  and cole made out like a bandit.  and he wanted me to tell you all that it was the best fake birthday he ever had. check it out: 

  

only casualty of the day: our little love-it, who couldn’t hang the remainder of the day. here he is in all his glory.

(this is after his skipped nap and another 2 hr family trip to target’s toy department to spend gift cards/money)

and yes, cole did in fact love the remote control tarantula and yes, its really freaky crawling across the floor…(shivers, shivers, shivers) but his favorite toy- leapster, with the batman cartridge.

papa, you rule!

 

 

(note to you, your eyes are not playing tricks… i’m just too tired to mess with correcting fonts tonight)