This is sooooooo me!

So the celebrations to mark my upcoming birthday (It's tomorrow!!!  It's tomorrow!!) keeps getting better and better.  As if the outings with my MOMs Club mommy friends, my preschool mommy friends, the upcoming Girl's celebration, my ENTIRE family flying in and surprising me wasn't enough, I walked in to my house on Saturday afternoon and found the most wonderful cake in my living room.  This cake is so awesome, that it deserves its own blog entry.  For anyone interested, Kelly Nyman (http://www.kelscakecreations.blogspot.com/) made this cake.  She is one amazing and talented artist.  Jeff arranged with Kelly to have the cake made.  She took all she knew about me and whipped up this little number.  The top layer was gluten-free.



The running shoe on top is the exact kind I
wear, Asics.  The clapboard's movie being
featured is "Beaches". 



One of my most favorite touches..."RIP Pasta 2009"
I love the Crystal Light packet ("Friend's don't
let friends drink plain water.")



That's Jeff and I, with the date we got
married in the heart.  The address to our
house is on the mailbox.  The book is "My Sister's
Keeper" by one of my most favorite
authors.



Ian and Sam, their birth dates are written in the
balloons.  The top of the cake has my high school
and college diplomas.  There is even reference
to the #1 guy on "my list" Matt Damon.



Birthday Party Extravaganza!

Most people think I am crazy, but personally, I think I am a genius.  Allow me to explain.  My kids birthdays are one week apart in the month of May.  Sam was born on the 23rd and Ian was born on the 31st.  My idea has been to take the weekend in between their birthdays (usually this occurs on the holiday weekend - Memorial day) and knock out each of their parties.  Now hear comes the icing on the cake making this idea go from smart to brilliant - let's do them both on the SAME day, back to back.  I did this last year and decided to go for it again yesterday.

It works great for the grandparents and relatives who come from longer distances, and it is perfect for my mom who will fly in for the kids' parties.  Plus, you are already in party mode, so just keep the momentum going a few hours longer.  It's a 2 for 1 deal.  Now, I know the logical thing would be to combine the parties and make it one big birthday combo celebration, but with Ian being a boy who is 3 years older, he will want a different party than Sam, who is a girl.


PARTY #1:

Z Pizza for Ian's 6th birthday (Boys only!).  We had to limit this party to 15 kids, so we made the decision to go with a boys-only guest list.  This is the coolest party idea (thanks to Jen. W for letting me know about it).  They give the kids a tour of the kitchen, show them how they make pizza dough and pizza.  Then the kids get to each make their own pizza complete with whatever toppings they'd like.  At the end of the party they get a certificate naming them a junior pizza maker and it includes a coupon for 2 free slices and a drink to come back.  What a great idea!  The only thing I would've done differently is make the party 30 minutes less.  2 hours was a tad too long; 1.5 hours would have been perfect.  Although there was this kid that took forever to eat his pizza and needed the allotted time.  This was our first official "you can drop off your kid and come back later if you want" kind of party.  Pretty cool!




Ian designed this cake.  Darth Vadar fighting Luke.
Luke loses his hand.  The hand is sitting on top of the cake.
Gruesome, isn't it?  Kelly did a fantastic job
bringing Ian's vision to life.



Ian and his friends making their pizzas

PARTY #2:

Hidden Pond Nature Center for Sam's 3rd birthday.  This party is designed for everyone to attend (parents, siblings, etc).  We had Ian's 3rd birthday party here and I really like this place.  It's a good-size room and can accommodate everyone, with a little room to run around.  Plus, on a nice day, the kids can go outside and walk around the pond.  The staff gathers the reptiles (snakes, turtles, etc) and does a little presentation to the kids, giving them a chance to pet them. 

One big problem with this party yesterday -- there was no power to the building.  Which also meant no AC.  Oh my!  But did this stop the party from happening?  Nooooooooooooo!  We partied on!

Sam is all about princesses, wands and castles.
Could this be any more girly or perfect for our
little princess?  Again, Kelly came up with
the most awesome cake. 



Sam sporting the decorate-your-own-tiara
on her head.  How cute is she?!?!

 So there you have it.  Yesterday was pretty crazy, but mission accomplished and we are done for another year.  Woo-hoo!!  Many hugs and kisses to the families who had overlap and attended both parties with one kid at Ian's and then came with the whole family to Sam's.    And much thanks to Kelly for creating the kids' birthday cakes that suited them to a "T".

Let them eat cake!

I am not sure if there is a condition called "2nd Child Syndrome" or not, but if there is, I am well on my way of making Sam a permanent member. I feel like she is already getting the short end of the stick on the lack of playgroups, music, gym and swim classes I've yet to enter her in. Although to my defense, I did just sign her up in a My Gym class we go to while Ian is in school. She absolutely loves it and of course, that makes me feel bad for not getting her involved in this sooner.

When Ian turned 1, we (okay, I'll admit it, it was mostly all my doing. My husband tried hard to get me to scale back) got VERY carried away throwing him a party. We invited over 70 people (56 adults, 23 kids), hired a hot children's band to come play, and ended up renting tables and chairs for our backyard, so people had a place to sit. I can look back now and say that was mostly for my benefit as Ian had no idea what was going on and would've been happy just being with his parents eating cake for the first time.

Having learned my lesson, the party this Saturday for Samantha's first birthday is most definitely on the small side. The invite list totaled 15 (almost all relatives) and will not include a band. There is one thing I can do however that I did for Ian and want to go that extra mile for Samantha.

Right now I am in the process of baking a cake in the letters of the name of my sweet little girl. I did the same thing for Ian and made him 3 cakes - an "I" and "A" and an "N". I baked the cakes and took them to a local bakery for them to frost. It turned out really cool and the pictures are pretty awesome for Ian to look back on and see the fuss that was made for his first birthday. How can I not do the same for my 2nd child? The part that sucks is, Ian has only 3 letters in his name and Samantha has 8! Oh my. So yes, I am currently baking 8 separate cakes. I am getting it all done tonight so that I can drop it off tomorrow at the bakery for them to frost and decorate. I do know my limits! However, hindsight is 20/20 and if I realized I was going to get this hair brained cake idea, I would've named her "Lia".

Family from out of town has been invading our house this week and more is to come in the next couple of days. It is fabulous having them here and makes me really wish we lived closer year-round. An extra set of hands (or two) is a good thing. I really don't mind doing all the party preparations when I know my two little ones are having so much fun hanging with Mom-mom and Pop-Pop Jim.

Slowly but surely, I feel like I am getting my life back. The events job sent an email today asking if I could work some events coming up in the next couple of weeks. I told them I had too much going on and needed to take a break for the next month or so. Score one for me! And soon, my tv watching will be taking a hiatus too. With the season finale for 'American Idol', 'Biggest Loser', 'Celebrity Apprentice', "Desparate Housewives", and series finale for 'Prison Break' recently airing, I can now spend more time on reading and finishing the books in a timely manner. This should make the library very happy. And, I might even have time for a conversation with my husband.

The sun has been shining and so have I.