Dragon Birthday Cakewreck

I swear, no alcohol was consumed in the making of this dragon birthday cake. Fortunately, in the eyes of child judges, candy and buttercream covers a multitude of sins. Bonnie Stewart of Crib Chronicles turned me onto the Instructables for it. My advice to you if you attempt it is to not wait until two hours before party start time to make it (unless your house is already clean, and the decorations are already up, in which case, two hours should be plenty). Also, use a wide, flat-tip icing point to apply the icing, so the cake doesn't crumble to moist particles of chocolate dragon flesh where ever you touch it with the spatula.

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Birthday Morning Breakfast "Cake"

With apologies to all of my kids' teachers this morning, I give you a recipe for Birthday Morning Breakfast Cake: multigrain waffles layered with peanut butter, Nutella, marshmallow fluff, and, of course, sprinkles.

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The Five-Minute, Eleventh-Hour, Hundred-Day Project

I was picking up my youngest from a friend yesterday evening, who happens to be a teacher in our school district.

"Got your Hundred Day Project done?" she asked, brightly.

I said something not appropriate for a family-oriented review blog.

Hundred Day is one of those made-up holidays that sneaks up on me every time, because it's not rooted in any personal childhood memory. That sounds good, doesn't it? Actually, my own children's birthdays sneak up on me, too. That's how I roll.

Fortunately, if there's one thing I'm good at, (as I keep reassuring my agent and editor, patiently waiting on late manuscript revisions) it's pulling it together at the fifty-ninth minute of the eleventh hour.

I came home and found boxes of crayons hoarded from back-to-school sales, dumped a 5-lb bag of rice in a shoebox, and told my kindergartner to get busy planting.

Inch by inch, row by row.

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Pokemon Themed Birthday Party

My freshly-minted nine-year-old had a birthday party this week, with a Pokemon theme. I've been living with thousands of Pokemon for the better part of a decade, and I'm still not sure whether they are animal, vegetable or mineral, so I went to the internet for ideas. I stumbled across one birthday party website where parents submit details of their own party planning. I was exhausted just reading a couple of these. Some of these moms are raising the bar too high, too early.

For the benefit of underachieving moms like me, here's what we did:

Guests: No more guests than the birthday child's age. Half this number for a sleepover.

Venue: My kids love hosting their birthday parties at home. After outsourcing several in the early years, I much prefer it too. The focus is more on socializing, less on the activity.

Decor: Pokemon tablecloth, paper plates, cups, napkins and helium balloon arrangement. Store bought from the local party supply depot.

Activities: The table was set with blank shrinky-dink sheets from the craft store and a bucket of multi-colored permanent markers. I was surprised how many kids needed an explanation of what shrinky-dinks are. I told them to use the markers to draw their own Pokemon card or character, and we would bake them in the oven for a keepsake. We had about a fifty percent fail rate in the baking, as some of the cards curled up on themselves or warped, but the kids were really into it, so it warrants some more research. Maybe the sheets (trimmed to 5X7) were too large?

We played stick the tail on the Pikachu with a large cut-out sketched by our resident graphic designer and colored by the birthday boy. Kids love this one. I always spin the contestant around a few times before sending them toward their target. The other players think it's a hoot to watch their pal stumble off blindly in the wrong direction.

I had a bunch of balloons for pumping up and twisting together into shapes, thinking the guests could make their own balloon Pokemon to take home, but we never got to it. My kids really liked the test run of this the night before though, so it's worth passing along.

Two ideas I borrowed from the party website were Guess how many Caterpies (gummy worms in a ziploc bag, which the winner got to keep), and Which Pokemon Am I, a kind of 20 questions game, which didn't really work out, because there are just too many Pokemon a person could be, as it turns out.

Prizes and favors were Pokemon trading cards.

Cake: my son requested a cake "shaped like a Pokeball," and I told him I'd do my best. I found a ball-shaped mold at the craft store, and covered it in marshmallow fondant, a vile concoction if ever there was one. But if you don't mind sacrificing taste to style, it was easy (if messy) to make, and can assume the shape of anything.

Behold:



If this child of mine ever even so much as whispers a complaint of middle child deprivation, I plan to whip out this photo. Enough said.

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"A Fancy Time" Birthday Party

I don't know how it is where you live, but in our neck of the woods, the at-home birthday party is practically extinct. It's a shame, because there are few occasions sweeter.

It's become more or less the rule to invite all one's classmates and outsource the celebration to a party facility. For sure, my kids love to attend those parties, and from time to time, we've hosted one. But to me they feel anti-social. The activity level doesn't allow the kids to really connect. The turnstile format doesn't let them practice much in the way of social graces. Instead of getting to play guests and hosts, and focusing on each other, such parties tends to be all about the action.

We jumped off that bandwagon early. The boys' guest lists are a process of discernment. There are clear limits to how many guests they can have: the same number as their age; half for a sleepover. They help plan the theme, menu and activities. Sadly my older boys are pretty much lost to character merchandising. I thought our Littlest Who would insist on Super Mario or Transformers for his fifth birthday theme, but to my delight, he agreed when I suggested a "fancy" party instead.

"I'll leave it to you to interpret," I told the mothers of his guests in a heads-up email.

They outdid themselves, with tutus, neckties and sashes. In fact, our little host was quite out-classed, as he abandoned his "fancy" clothes for a t-shirt and soccer shorts moments before the party started. Oh well, at least they were black and white. We did get him to pose for photos in his velvet top hat.

Our host presented all the ladies with bouquets of "silk" red roses, and spanish lace fans. The gents were given top hats and black sunglasses. Black and white crepe streamers and helium balloons made the house look very fancy indeed, accented by silver mylar star balloons, which the guests took home.

Partiers nibbled on very fancy miniature meatballs, chicken nuggets, grapes and cheese cubes, stuck with cocktail picks, and sipped sparkling fruit punch from plastic wine goblets. Chauffeurs had to make do with sangria and guacamole on the front porch.

After some time to gather and catch up, the kids played pass the parcel, who's got the button and pin the tail on the donkey. Then cupcakes were served à la table, before sending everyone out to take a crack at the pinata.

It was altogether charming, and so much more civilized than a free-for-all at the pizza arcade. "Here, darling, hold Auntie Kyran's drink, precious," takes on quite a different tone at home than it does in Chuck E. Cheese. And a floor length gown is so awkward there.

Here's the budget breakdown, for five guests and one host, as well as adult refreshments. It's not the economy version: I did get a little carried away with the favors, and the pinata (filled with fruit chew packets) was a last-minute impulse buy. Included in this are a cupcake decorating kit and extra baking pan that I can reuse. Still, there's no way we could have out-sourced a party for less, and I get to feel like we've kept the home birthday party alive another year.

Party Budget

wine & rum for sangria $13*

food $25

party favors and prizes $37

piñata & filler $18 (used $5 coupon at party store)

balloons, streamers, candles $27

2 dozen cupcakes $20 (inc. reusable deco kit & pan)

invitations, plates, cups & napkins $14

TOTAL $154
*no, I did not poison anyone. It was actually a very decent bottle of wine on sale.

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A hundred years or more.

My best girl's husband, Rod, turned 40 a little while ago. They are both extraordinary people who make my white picket fence world a lot more vivid, so I wanted to do something special in his honor.

I snapped the photo a couple of years ago at a dinner party. It just happened that Rod picked up that frame, and a moment was made. He was running as an independent candidate for governor at the time, very much putting himself out on a public limb, and I thought the photo was a perfect statement about persona.

For his birthday, I asked Patrick to tint the original photo in four shades, then send an order to Target from flickr for 100 4X6 prints (plus one to frame). It cost about 20 dollars. On the day of the party, I went down to the site and arranged them in a grid on the wall, 10 rows of 10, the colors moving diagonally (unlike the sample above). Underneath it, I stuck a printed label "Hope you live to be 100."

I wish I had gotten a good photo of the final installation, but I left my camera behind. It looked great. An easy, memorable, and budget-friendly way to mark a milestone birthday. Feel free to pass it on.

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