The Hero(ine)'s Quest

I'm sure things happened in the early part of this week, but my memories of them are hazy at this point. (I do remember some of them--driving up north, shopping with my mom, invading my sister's house, etc.) But my primary focus this week has been towards the creation and execution of a birthday party. In short, Evelyn turned two this week.

Looking at her now, it's hard to remember her as she was two years ago: a preemie in the NICU at the hospital. She's still cute, but there's not much little or delicate about her. Things I love about my growing girl: her funny little waddle-run (this regularly cracks her grandpa up), the way she snuggles up next to me, her "tisses" (kisses), her growing awareness of other people and her expanding vocabulary (grandpa was helping her play with a shape sorter yesterday afternoon; her favorite is the "obal" but she was hilarious trying to say pentagon). While I'm not as enamored of her increasing stubbornness, I'm grateful for the fact that she seems to be growing into a strong, smart, independent woman. And I'm trying to savor as many of the baby moments as she'll let me have.

Saturday was the big party. In between cleaning and food prep, I dressed Evelyn in an appropriately princess-y outfit for her fairy tale party. You can't see her pigtails here, but you can see them better in later pictures.

Since we were at my parents' house for the occasion, we limited ourselves to a family party. But since most of our family is in the area, we still had a full house (11 kids and 9 adults). When the guests arrived, we had the kids make foam crowns (I am indebted to Oriental Trading post for most of the cute crafts/favors that we had) and then embarked on the main activity of the day: the Quest.

And as anyone who knows their Joseph Campbell knows, most quests start out with a call to adventure. So, the resident ogre (my long suffering husband, who really isn't ogreish at all), kidnapped the rubber ducks and stole away with them into the backyard. The call to adventure came as our young party-goers were asked to rescue them.

We filed into the backyard, where the kids all donned costumes (mostly adult t-shirts, since that was what we had on hand) in preparation for their quest. Then, they rode their bikes across a "swamp" and encountered their first mythical figure: the wise woman. I figured that most fairy tales include a being who isn't what he or she seems--and most often, the questing hero is rewarded for helping this unassuming creature. I pressed my sister into service, and the kids helped her collect her missing "magic stones."

In exchange, she told them how to defeat the ogre (he was scared of bubbles). In keeping with the spirit of most fairy-tale quests, the next obstacle was a little misleading. The kids were told to choose their weapon and they had an assortment of swords and bubbles to choose from. Of course, the big kids (who were the most excited about the business) all chose swords. (We had to remind them that the swords wouldn't work--in this case, what they really wanted didn't appear to be a weapon at all).

I love this picture of the big kids racing to the weapons, even if it's a little out of focus. It gives you a good sense of how well they got into their roles.

Evelyn wasn't really sure what was going on, but she did her best to keep up with the bigger kids. (Dan pointed out numerous times during the day that the party wasn't really for her. And I suppose it wasn't--it morphed into something bigger than that, since the activities were directed at the older kids. Still, she was the definite center of attention for most of it.)


Finally, of course, we got it all sorted out. The kids blew their bubbles, the ogre was vanquished, and each child got to rescue a rubber ducky. They were mostly pleased with the results.


After the quest, we had lunch and then opened presents. This procedure took longer than intended, as Evelyn kept losing interest in the wrapped presents--she was more interested in playing with the ones already opened (that's why here you see her trying to reach past me to get to her first present). We eventually gave up and opened her presents in small pockets over the afternoon--she didn't get to the presents from Dan, Andrew and I until after dinner.

The final event of the party was the lighting of candles and eating of the cake. Here, too, Evelyn wasn't initially too into the idea. But after we sang to her, she figured out that this was all about her and seemed to enjoy it more. I had to blow the candles out for her, though.

And this, of course, was the cake. I made it on Friday and decorated it that evening, which saved me a lot of the stress that I'd had with Andrew's cake in December. Just so you don't get a false idea of my creativity, I have to admit that I got the basic design idea online (the ice-cream cone towers especially). But in the spirit of true confession, I have to admit that I enjoyed making the cake and I was pleased with the result. Dan keeps asking me why I go to so much effort (my mom, after watching part of the process, joined him in the question). I suppose the honest reason has two parts: first, I want my kids to have something to tell them that they are special to me, something that requires time and effort on my part. Since I'm not great at sewing or other constructive abilities, they get cakes. Second, though, I have to admit that there's a part of me that wants to show off, just a little, and since I'm no longer in school (where the opportunities for praise are more plentiful), I go a little overboard with cakes.



Andrew, with a black tongue from eating part of the dragon.

All in all, a successful birthday. But I'm glad I have at least six months until the next one!

(I should also note that none of this could have happened without the help of a few generous people--mostly Dan and my mom. Dan made the cool melted sugar moat for the castle; my mom helped shop for supplies, helped man the kitchen, and basically served as our general factotum.)