Nathan's Birthday Continued...

Yesterday was Nathan's birthday, but it was a busy day as all Friday's are. We tried to make it as special for him as we could despite needing to get things ready for his actual party (which occurred today). He opened his presents when we got home from our homeschool co-op and then we ate our lunch. After that, party preparations began - and Nathan went outside to play with his new set of real tools!

One of the biggest tasks for me when it comes to preparing for the birthday party is the cake. And yesterday afternoon as I was trying to decide what size pan I'd need to bake Nathan's cake I made a discovery. My ovens in this house are tiny, tiny, tiny. I have a large Wilton square baking pan that I have used many times for the kids' past birthday cakes. I never dreamed that it would not fit in my new home's double oven. So for the first time, I had to take all of my baking ingredients to my mom's house (thank goodness we live only a mile apart!) and bake the cake there. It worked okay, and it also gave me some relaxing time visiting with my parents while I waited for the cake to finish baking. When it was done, I took it home to cool.

Nathan's requested birthday dinner was a happy meal from "Old McDonald's" (that's what the kids call Mc Donald's) and a picnic dinner in the den while we watch "Quest for Camelot". Sounded great to me - a dinner at home without me having to cook! After dinner the kids played, but Bill and I set back to work. Poor Bill ended up putting the kids to bed while I began my lengthy challenge of decorating the cake. This ended up taking several hours to complete, though for the most part I did enjoy it. I just wish I had a "helper" to mix all of the buttercream frosting, color it for me, and wash up when all is said and done. I'd bake a cake for anyone's celebration if they'd just do that part of the job for me. :)

Since I was busy with the cake, Bill did all of the decorating and planned all of the games. I also had to get the party favors together and label the bags for collecting the pinata goodies. I think I was so tired that after awhile, I just moved in slow motion. Bill just became more energized as the night wore on; he claims it was the coffee we made at one point but considering I drank from the same pot of coffee and it was doing nothing for me, I kind of doubt that was it. I did find "October Sky" on television and I think that may have been what did it. It's probably one of his favorite movies and I think he was determined to stay up and watch all of it (even though we have it on DVD and VHS tape). So we didn't end up going to bed until close to 3:30am. Nothing new for us. Actually, compared to many of the previous late nights preparing for birthday parties, I'd say 3:30 wasn't bad at all.

Today's party was great. Nathan had chosen a knight theme so we had the kids decorate shields, play a three musketeer race, go on a scavenger quest, and use an amazing wooden sword made by our very own Daddy and Nathan, to slay a pinata dragon. Then we ate pizza, opened presents and ate cake, which I had made to look like a knight's shield.

We are all a little tired now and I'm looking forward to turning in early tonight. But I so enjoyed seeing family and friends and watching the excitement of the kids as they all played together. And hearing Nathan say that his favorite part of his birthday party was every part of his birthday party made all of our hard work and little sleep well worth it! Happy birthday, Nathan!