Christian's Birthday Bash...

We celebrated Christian's birthday on Saturday. It was a nice little family affair: No hype, no friends, no fancy cake - just us. It was nice. Birthdays are a big deal to me. I totally plan some fancy theme party, order a fancy cake, buy fancy decorations, hand make fancy invitations - you name it. I do this because I figure I'll only be able to do this for them for a few years before they're "too cool" for it. We started the day with a trip to Toys "R" Us so that Mom, JD and Camryn could pick out some fun presents for Christian. Christian has been enjoying his wooden train set, so I loaded up on Thomas the Train and Imaginarium train accessories. My attention drifted down the aisle to the Geo-Trax set up. Whoa...pretty cool I must say. Anyway, I dumped my original idea for the new and improved one. During Christian's nap, I set up the decorations and baked a cake. Dad brought home sandwiches, we all put on the appropriate party gear (old Scooby-Do party hats from JD's 3rd birthday party) and the party was underway.


Before you witness my masterpiece of a cake, I must warn you.....many women have tried to be as fabulous a cake decorator as your's truly, but have failed miserably. I know you're going to be knocking down my door for a lesson in cake fabulocity, but my skills will be too much for the average seeker. Anyway, check this baby out. I call it the "Dirty Dum-Dum Cake"

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Nice, huh?

This cake was all about what Mom had in the pantry (chocolate cake mix, cream cheese frosting - homemade of course - and oreo's). I had to add the Dum-Dum suckers because they are Christian's favorite treat in the world (I always have one in my purse for emergencies!) The kids didn't really get into the "Dirty Dum-Dum Cake" or the freezer burned ice cream - they just liked the Dum-Dums! At one point, Christian packed 3 in his mouth.



The kids had fun opening their presents. Yes, I said "their" presents. We have a tradition of having the birthday sibling (a.k.a Mama) buy the other siblings a present to avoid any jealousy. It usually works out nicely (except when the present is some cheap plasticized China product - like what JD got - and it breaks. More on that below). We set up the GeoTrax city 'o trains and JD and Camryn had a great time. Christian soon got the hang of the remote controller and had a great time. As you can see by the picture, the Geo city is taking up the last of our free space in the house - it was going to happen sooner or later. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to store all of this new stuff - maybe in our bathtub.


Anyway, I have to brag a bit before I quit for tonight. So I mentioned earlier about JD's cheap toy that broke. Well, it was a floor air hockey table and the air wasn't flowing up through the holes (kind of an important part as far as air hockey tables go). JD, in expected JD style, cried and said he wanted to trade the junkie toy in for something new. I said, "Sorry babe, but Mama bought it on clearance after Christmas so you just need to push the disc around with your finger." I thought that was funny. He didn't. After a long night of playing GeoTrax, I was determined to fix the China toy. I was like a freak'n mechanic - I took it entirely apart, fixed the problem, put it back together and impressed the heck out my 7 year old! We played a game of air hockey after that. Rock'n awesome Mom - 1, whiny little man - 0.


Man, I set out to write a sentence or two about our little party, and then all of that happened!


Until next time...