That same night, my mom came down with her sister (who had work-related meetings in the area). They stayed in a local hotel, which meant that we spent the next morning at the hotel in the swimming pool. The kids spent the time jumping in the pool, swimming to the edge, clambering out, and jumping back in again. (They were both wearing inner-tubes, of course). My mom and I spent the time chatting and trying to keep our teeth from chattering. The water wasn't cold, precisely, but it wasn't warm either. (Not that the kids noticed).
We took my mom to lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant in town and feted her with sushi, tempura, and other good stuff. We ran into Dan's Uncle Phil and Aunt Karen while we were there--it was fun to see them, if only for a few minutes.
My mom headed back north that afternoon, but not until after she'd delivered some birthday presents for Andrew and a sympathy present for Evelyn. (Which was probably a good thing, because between Christmas presents and Andrew's birthday party, Evelyn has been having a hard time grasping that her birthday isn't right around the corner).
Does he look excited, or what? We love trios at our house.
Thursday morning was the much anticipated birthday party for our boy. (His real birthday, as many of you know, is Christmas Eve, but I like to give the kid at least a little separation between his birthday and Christmas). This year, he chose a dragon theme. (It's a good thing he actually likes dragons, since most of his presents were dragon-related).In the spirit of past birthday presents, we tried to keep the activities theme related. We did some crafts while waiting for everyone to arrive (we had one no-show--turns out his mom had a baby the day before, so we'll forgive him for not coming!), then we sent the kids downstairs to "train" for dragon-fighting/training. (Dan put them through a mini-obstacle course). When they came back up stairs, we engaged in some knight v. dragon combat, a game where the kids faced off for one minute and the dragon tried to touch the knight while the knight tried to dodge (needless to say, the dragons pretty much won all rounds. Next time I'll have to think of better rules). Following combat, we engaged in some dragon "training"--a variation of Simon says.
Here are the boys in their "dragon" masks, right after their training.
They opted to open presents before eating cake. Dan and I were a little perplexed by this, until we realized that for five-year-old boys, opening presents really means that they all get to play with the toy they brought . . .
Finally, we had some cake. Andrew wanted a nightfury (from how to Train Your Dragon) on top of his cake, so that's what he got. Luckily, this year's cake was much easier to make than last year's, so there were no meltdowns in the kitchen the night before. (Plus, I stuck with a boxed cake mix. The kids can't tell the difference anyway).
The kids all identified the cake without any prompting, so I guess that makes it reasonably successful. At any rate, I'm glad I don't have to make another one until May!
1 comment:
I thought you'd said in your other post that the cake was a bust. That cake is AWESOME! You've got skills. I took a wilton class once and still can only spread a can of premade frosting successfully. Way to go mama.
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