Look back at Birthdays

Well the last of the Holiday activities just wrapped up for us this past weekend, “A’s” birthday is the end of January so I usually clump it together with the rest of the season, after all Christmas and New Years are barely over when I start working on the festivities for his b-day party. This year we did something a little different (more on that in a later post) but I wanted to look back over each special day and remember the awesome events that they were.

Birthday #1 – It was pretty typical as far as 1^st birthdays go, planned for later in the day so that a nap could occur (of course it didn’t), more adults than children and lots and lots of pictures. What I remember the most from the special day is the very hard lesson that I learned, I was working as the manager for a store at the mall and had to go into work the morning of his birthday because somebody else called in sick, I was so devastated that I might miss his big day that it helped me realize that I needed to get out of retail and do something that was more conductive to raising a family and didn’t come with all kinds of crazy nights and weekends. I turned in my resignation the next week, this was the 1^st step I made towards going back to school and it’s a decision that I haven’t regretted at all.

My other favorite memories from that day include him eating the small cake I made for him, he didn’t like how sweet it was and he cried when the frosting got on him, he did however pick off all the rainbow sprinkles that were on top of it. We put him straight into the kitchen sink, clothes and all to get some of the frosting off of him and he passed out in his playpen right in the middle of the party. I also remember my cousin laying on her stomach thru the entire cake ordeal snapping tons of photo’s for me so that I didn’t have to worry about that and could just enjoy being there with him. One of the many reasons I love her and my little sister who drove 8 hours home from College just to be with us for his birthday.

Birthday #2 –Nemo Theme - and I really went overboard. I bought a large round aquarium to use for punch (which of course was made to look like water and even froze Swedish fish in ice cubes so there was fish swimming around in it). I made and hung orange fish from the ceiling with lots and lots of green crepe paper to look like you were under water. I even purchased a bunch of goldfish and gave them out as party favors to the guests. We still have a lot more adults than kids but everybody had fun.

Birthday #3 – Superhero Theme – He couldn’t decide between a Spiderman theme and a Superman theme so we just made it a general superhero theme, the catch though was that everybody (kids and adults) had to come dressed as their own personal superhero, or who they would be if they were a superhero. People were pretty good sports and participated for the most part. The big kid activity was decorating cookies, a good idea until the red frosting got everywhere, all the pictures of the kids they all have red all over their mouths. Still more adults than kids but getting a little bit better.

Our "Super" family

Birthday #4 – Pirate Theme – The first of many obsessions he had, he was obsessed with all things pirate for a good 3 years and even made people call him Jack Sparrow (from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”). He thought all pirates were good and didn’t like the cartoon movie “Peter Pan” because it portrayed the pirates as the bad guys. This was a easy theme to do because the movie had just hit it big and there was pirate stuff everywhere. I sent the invitations out in plastic bottles, had people come dressed as pirates, did a treasure hunt, made a pirate ship cake, and did all pirate themed snacks. The really big thing for this birthday is I found a guy who did impersonations to come and pretend to be Captain Jack Sparrow. Andrew has seen him that fall at the fair and was absolutely enthralled with him, it took me 3 months and every contact I had at the news station (I was working there doing an internship for their radio department) to find him but it was absolutely worth it. He knocked on the door and the look on Andrews face when he opened it to Captain Jack was worth all the work and stress I had put into the event. The guy was truly amazing and did an incredible job, he never broke character and to this day the kids who were there still talk about it.

Birthday #5 – Pirates Theme (again)

Birthday #6 – Transformers Theme – This was the first birthday party that wasn’t at my parents house, so that brought a new group of stresses and chaos to the plate but it was also nice to not have to spend the entire morning setting up and then the entire night cleaning up. We went to the local roller skating rink, it was a ton of fun and almost everybody skated. My niece and nephew (technically my cousin’s kids) were so impressed that they both had their birthdays there as well. I made an Optimus Prime cake that turned out really well. Kids to adult ratio is finally starting to balance out a bit more.

Birthday #7 – Indiana Jones Theme – Now I’m in love with the ease of which you can have a party somewhere besides your home. This one was at a place at our local mall that acts as a kids drop center where they can play while mom and dad shop and on Sundays it is only open for private parties to reserve. They have a air hockey table, a climbing and tube crawl area, video games, a movie area, dress ups stuff, and tricycles to ride so kids of all ages were able to play and participate. The only bad thing about this was that it was so broken up that I didn’t really get to visit with everybody. Andrew was supposed to be Indiana Jones for Halloween this year but woke up with the chicken pox that morning so he got to wear his costume to his party instead. I made all the invitations and even made and sewed little whips onto each one, a great idea but a ton of work. This was also special for me because a little girl, well not so little anymore, that I used to babysit for and who was supposed to be a flower girl in my wedding way way way back when, works there and had just found out that she was pregnant with her 1^st baby. There is more kids here than adults because we invited a lot of kids from school.

Birthday #8 – Hockey Theme – This was his first year playing on an actual hockey team so of course we had a hockey theme. We had it at a local place called Jump-n-Play, it’s a large warehouse that has 5 large bouncy things plus a toddler area. It’s safe to say that the adults had just as much fun if not more fun than the kids did, some of us still have scars from that day to prove it, who knew you could bleed from a large inflatable slide. It was such a hit that we had my nephew Josh’s 3^rd birthday there as well as several other kids who were there that day. Kids outnumber the adults, finally.

Invitation that I made for the party

Birthday #9 – No big party for all our friends just a long relaxing weekend spent at a hotel/waterpark with our entire family. It was just what the Dr ordered to be sure.