Happy Birthday To You;
I don't like PEOPLE! Why are there PEOPLE HERE??
Happy Birthday To You;
Why won't these people just go away?! Get away from me!!
Happy Birthday Dear Lu-uke;
Ooh, Cake? I didn't know there'd be cake. It's MINE, ALL MINE!
Happy Birthday To You!
Get that camera away from me and my cake or so help me I'll pop you.
So, yeah, basically, he screamed and refused to let me put him down until he realized there was cake. In hindsight, I'd have made the inside of the cake look a bit more appealing, or at least cute for pictures. Oh well. Live and learn...
The party was a success, but not without a massive amount of stress beforehand. My dad and stepmom (Nonnie and Poppy) offered to host it at their house, which I'm sure they now regret. Live and learn, people!
To me, the party is all about the cake. Since our kitchen has was basically useless in the three weeks leading up to the party (No Counters + No Sink = No Cooking!), I wasn't able to prepare much of anything ahead of time. Which means the day before the party, I called Janice (aka Nonnie), begging her to bake a couple of sheet cakes so that I could quickly decorate them Saturday morning. Thankfully, she obliged. (Again... I did the same thing to her the night before the twins' 2nd party!)
Then I realized my cake design (which was based upon the invites that I had sent out) required me to also have a small round cake to serve as the "smash cake" for Luke. But seeing as I didn't have a kitchen, I had to get innovative with this one. I ended up buying pre-made dessert cake shells (you know the ones; they are always next to the strawberries at the grocery store) and stacking them to serve as my round little bee. Good enough.
Anyway, long story short, the cake did not turn out quite like I had envisioned (for some reason I keep thinking I'm a natural pro at this stuff; in reality, this is now 3 for 3 parties that have been a mad dash to get the cake made hours before the party... live and learn, what?) Regardless, it made the kid finally stop crying!
Here's the invite, cake, and some misc. decor.
---And thanks to my photographers, uh, I mean family, for taking pictures. Because once again, (another 3 for 3 on this one,) I managed to forget my camera. Technically, I didn't forget the camera, I just forgot the memory card. ---
The invite and matching cake (literally finished 10 minutes before people arrived.) Anyone else notice I forgot to give the bee his wings?
The party favors: Sticks of honey and honeycomb candy bars.The cute bee windsock that I found inspired the party theme. He now hangs in front of our house! Oh, and Nonnie made these cute "It's my Bee-day" signs on the computer. Her ten minutes of work got more compliments than anything I spent hours preparing for the party. Sigh. :)
Imagine lots of yellow and black balloons and streamers (I told my husband, "twist the streamers when you put them up", and this is what he did. Not quite what I was going for. Oh well.) I had spent a decent amount of time making (decoupaging) this LUKE sign, which spent most of the party blown over. So everyone kept wondering what L__E meant. Now it is in his room, so still worth my time!
Well, that was the day. It was a bit chilly, but we enjoyed ourselves, and while Luke won't remember any of it, I like holding onto the memories (even if things never go quite as planned!)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET BOY!
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The pre party preparations were pretty out of control. (Six adults working feverishly for 5 hours for a 2 hour party!) But the party turned out very nice. Fun memories. I would be willing to host again. But I like your idea of every other year parties. And I'm SO glad you all did not end up coming out the day before the party. I don't think I could have handled 24 hrs of frantic preparation.
ReplyDeleteI actually think it was the smash bee cake that really upset Luke, although all those people there when he got up from his nap was unnerving him. Once he realized it wasn't a bee but a cake, he happily gutted it.
All your extra touches are a lot of work, but they are nice. And I know you really enjoy planning and executing them. I can totally relate.
Thanks, Janice! Glad to know we haven't scared you away from future parties; Dad may disagree though. :)
ReplyDeleteHe really doesn't know how to handle people at all, and it didn't really help that Todd woke him up in the middle of his nap. I say we just blame Todd for the tears. hah!
Cranky baby and all it was a great party because we love all of you. Love, Auntie Weevee
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