We celebrated the boys' birthday last night. Technically, I suppose, the celebration started on Thursday. A week ago, when we asked them what they wanted to eat for their birthday dinner, Leon requested breakfast for dinner and Michael wanted a pizza party. As much as they have to share the rest of the time, I didn't want them to have to share on their birthday. Consequently, we ended up with two sets of paper plates, napkins, and cups. But two dinners felt like overkill (at least for one night) so we had bacon and eggs on Thursday and pizza and breadsticks on Friday.
It's crazy how the party came together, and even though it was just our family, with six people and two dogs involved, it did feel like a party. My in-laws visited a couple of months ago and left birthday presents for the boys including a play set of Black and Decker tools. While at a consignment shop getting dress clothes for the kids to wear to a wedding, I stumbled across a workshop to go with the tools. (And I got it for only $18, plus I had a coupon. I am going to be so sad when they get old enough that I have to limit my shopping to new things.) But other than that, we had done nothing to get ready.
So last Saturday morning the whole family set off on an epic shopping adventure to do the weekly shopping, to get ready for their party, to get presents, and to take care of some other errands. Amazingly, Jeff and I were able to split up enough that we were able to sneak all of their presents. The week was crazy, and we didn't get a chance to wrap presents until late Thursday night, and I was pretty fried from staying up til 11:30 a couple of nights this week and getting up at 5:00. So the presents looked pretty sad. No ribbons or bows. I was also out of wrapping paper, and we had few boy bags, so their presents were mostly wrapped in pieces of the Sunday paper.
I shouldn't have worried though. Jeff had the boys play in their room while we set up the workshop and presents in the living room. They came running out like it was Christmas morning, and once they saw the tools and workshop they were done. I had to beg them to open presents. That's so wrong, but the same thing happens at Christmas around here. My kids are happy to just play with one new thing. I am going to enjoy that while it lasts.
After presents, we had to have birthday cake. We didn't have a big, beautiful, professional looking cake. We had something even better. We had cupcakes the kids made. They were hideous to behold, but they tasted good (triple chocolate), and they were so proud of them. The boys, Natalia, and I had baked them Tuesday night while Jeff and Ree were at gymnastics. (Not too surprisingly, the boys took an early bath immediately following that project, and the kitchen and table and mixer and couch needed some scrubbing too.) On Thursday night they set to work after dinner decorating them.
Chef Leon was insistent on an all-chocolate theme, and he artfully arranged chocolate chips on top of his chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.
Michael mostly ate sprinkles and inadvertently smooshed all the letters on his.
All things considered, it was a great party, and there is more fun to come on their actual birthday.
No comments:
Post a Comment