Even though I let myself off the hook by not hosting a big “friend” party for my son’s 7th birthday, I still spent a lot of time running around on Saturday and Sunday preparing for his big day. As a compromise for not having a party, I sent cupcakes to his class which meant I spent much of Saturday afternoon baking them and then got up early on Sunday to frost them. Sunday there was more baking to be done.
Every year the little man asks me for a cake “with fruit on top.” One year I did a white cake with whipped cream and slices of kiwi and pomegranate seeds on top which was both lovely and tasty but he didn’t care for it. Turns out he doesn’t like whipped cream (little freak!) Last year I did a pineapple upside down cake – again lovely and tasty but he didn’t even try it! This year I decided to give him what he didn’t know he wanted: a pumpkin “donut” cake with cream cheese frosting. It was a big hit with everyone, and he was over the moon with his presents.
If I thought that this week was going to be calmer, I should have known better. It isn’t enough that in addition to Halloween this month, the school scheduled Victorian dress-up day last week – next week my daughter is doing Tudor dress-up day. I really should have seen this one coming. She has decided to be a boy rather than a girl, which I am totally in favor of because I have many of the basics already: she can wear a long sleeved white shirt with her baggy black soccer shorts (which I’ll gather with elastic bands at the bottom to make them puffy), and she can wear her long white soccer socks for tights. But it all comes down to the vest and the hat again. The cop-out in me who is tired of designing costumes is sort of thinking she can wear the vest I made last week and I’ll stick a long feather in the corduroy “Victorian” hat. But the overachiever in me found a pattern for an authentic Tudor style hat and I happen to have some green velvet in my fabric stash from which I could probably make both a hat AND a drapey vest / robe. I still don’t have a feather, but who would care if she were wearing velvet?
Tuck a pillow in her shirt and add a turkey leg as a prop and she could be Henry VIII for Halloween 
It’s hot and dusty and miserable here at the moment and I have no water yet again so what else have I got to do but spend all my time making a hat, right?
I shamefully admit I don’t miss those birthday party days. My twins were born in October. We’d go from their birthday to Halloween. Then it was my son’s birthday in mid-November, immediately followed by hubby’s. Then Thanksgiving .. and on it went.
by Terry Odell October 19th, 2009 at 9:24 amHappy Birthday to your son. A Victorian dress up sounds like a lot of fun for daughter and Mommy.
by Mona Risk October 19th, 2009 at 12:00 pmTerry – I think planning a party for twins would kill me!! It’s bad enough that hubby and son are only a week apart!
by Jenyfer October 20th, 2009 at 1:54 amIt’s only fun once the costume is completed!!
by Jenyfer October 20th, 2009 at 1:55 am