Birthdays

We are still celebrating Will's 2nd birthday which conveniently coincides with Nathan's 31st birthday. I think 2nd birthdays are my favorite. Will was just old enough to realize that it was a party but still too young to have expectations. Both added a digit to their tally on Sunday, July 27th. However, we had a birthday gathering for them on Friday. I have a strict rule that each child gets to have big odd numbered birthdays and even numbered birthdays are spent with discretion. Here's how strict I am: last year, when Carter turned 4, he got to invite one friend and his local cousins over for some cake and ice cream. No big deal. But you can't have 4 kids over and not have anything for them to do. So I turned to Nathan's brother who in turn transported two ponies to our house and gave everyone pony rides up and down the street. That was a low-key birthday at our house.

This year was no exception. Instead of just inviting over the local family for cupcakes and ice cream, we ended up with a full blown cook out. I insisted to my mother that even birthdays are small. She insisted to me that she would turn me in to social services with cold, hard evidence of my incompetence if I didn't "do something for that baby's birthday!" I repsonded "that's great for Nathan but what about Will?" Silence. She never has really appreciated my humor. I did, however, agree to have a "small gathering for local family." Mimi and Papa would be in town already. Mimi and Doc were free and could bring along cousins Grayson and Lane who were visiting them. Nathan's brother could pop in with his friend. Laid back. Casual. No stress.

That's when I decided I did, in fact, need more stress. I should make Will an Elmo cake. He really does like Elmo, so he should be pretty excited about it and it couldn't be that hard, right? Well, Ben Gates in National Treasure 1 and 2 did not have so much trouble as I did tracking down the Elmo cake pan that floats around the population of moms in our church. After 6 phone calls, two emails, and a wild goose chase, I finally pinned it down after holding a dollar bill in the sun, under a prism, and reading the secret message written in Dutch.

As I read the directions to bake and decorate Elmo, I started to feel like Nathan was getting left out. It was his birthday first. I should do something to equally and individually recognize him. I really didn't think another cake was going to work out because, well, it was a small gathering and we couldn't eat 2 cakes. He has always liked ice cream cakes and I figured I could just make one - minus more cake. I'm educated, I know how to Google, and seriously what's the worst that could happen? The worst that could happen is that your freezer is so stuffed with Kroger frozen vegetables that were on sale last week that you can't get the ice cream cake in the freezer to freeze into cake form. I had to do a lot of Japanese style folding of items to fit everything in, but the good news is the kids love brussel sprouts that resemble cranes flapping their wings.

Our little gathering was really starting to take shape. I learned from Ronald Reagan and my husband that delegation is essential. Let people do what they do best and don't micromanage. I delegated grilling hamburgers to one Mimi, potato salad to the other Mimi. I had Nathan making fruit salad and preparing hamburger toppings. Doc was helping out with side dishes. That left me free to do face painting! Yes, I said face painting. I didn't have ponies though!

Everything turned out great! Well, except that Will was slightly disturbed by a large, decapitated Elmo head on a platter. Cousin Lane declared it was the best birthday party he's ever been to. I don't think that was necessarily true, but when a 4 year old is having enough fun to comment on it, it makes this mom feel pretty accomplished.