someone turned seven

well, seven about a month ago. we are actually still recovering from the big party so I consider this posting a personal triumph.

super epic party edition

super epic rainbow party, folks. it's a lot to take in, I know. but I could not help myself.

p.s. click on individual images for party deets. also, the full set is here.

number 34

number 34 off the list and you should know that the super epic rainbow cake was totally the inspiration for ava's super epic rainbow birthday sleepover.



something else you should know: I did not bake this cake from scratch. I mean, that was my original plan but sometimes things just do not go according to plan. and so two white cake mixes and one box of assorted gel food coloring later and voila: super epic rainbow cake. my version, anyway.



it's a very tall cake. therefore, precarious.



also, once the frosting is on, it's completely unassuming. we decided early on to keep the whole rainbow thing a secret and did not tell the guests about the cake beforehand. you know, for maximum effect.



so when I finally cut into the cake, it was sort of like when oprah gave out brand new cars on her show and the women in the audience lost their minds.



for a second, I was oprah. except with a gaggle of nine year-old girls and a six layer rainbow cake. let me tell you, that moment alone was totally worth all the hard work.

totally.

(photos from the super epic rainbow party coming soon)

and she's eight

little people are slowly turning into big people around here. and I am becoming more and more convinced that I have missed my true calling as someone who throws birthday parties for children and likes it a little too much.



that ava, she is officially eight. wasn't I just talking about five and six? did I even get around to seven?



several months ago, she asked for a party with a chinese theme. it was all I could do to keep from emitting a series of high-pitched screams. oh, the possibilities! picture me wild-eyed, visions of red paper lanterns and pink parasols dancing in my head. I could not help myself.







it's my 7th birthday that I remember most. me in a frothy confection of a dress, white organza with a layer of candy pink underneath. I remember the way my mom transformed the living room of our very brown split level home into a sugary sweet land of hovering balloons and crepe paper magic. the whole scene is faded but forever set in my mind like a partially developed polaroid. we are playing musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey in slow motion. I am wearing bright white socks carefully pulled to the tops of my knees and shiny black mary janes. I am surrounded by a collection of friends: marsha and melanie from across the street, michelle and anna from my first grade class and cindy, the class bully. whom I invited because I was afraid of what might happen to me if I didn't. cut to the part where they are all singing to me and I am smiling, gathering breath to take out seven tall, skinny birthday candles, wishing it could all go on forever.



so this is my gift to them, year after year. parties they will always remember, details that will (hopefully) find their way into stories they will eventually tell about childhood. I'm not going to lie, I thoroughly enjoy it, probably a little too much. I love the entire process, from beginning to end. the planning, the brainstorming and researching of ideas, the collecting of supplies, the making, the doing. I love it. this is something I can give them, so I do. and I will continue on with it until that day when they pretend it is so uncool. when my enthusiasm is just too much for them to take. I will step down graciously, I promise.



until then, all bets are off. happy 8th birthday, sweet girl. not sure how we are going to top this one. I think this one was my favorite.


p.s. back in june, ezra turned four and had a robot party. where are the photographs and the stories? they are coming. am now completely undecided as to which was more fun: chinese paper lanterns or robots wearing party hats.

p.p.s. the ideas for ava's party were already pretty much in place but my sweet friend christina sent me this link which just about sent me over the edge of happy creative party-making. thank you, christina.

p.p.p.s. see ava's entire birthday bash here.

p.p.p.p.s. yes, I do like the p.s. thing. a lot.

party people in the house say HO

party people were in the house last week. ezra is now officially two years plus seven days old (take a lookie at the all festivities here-- the car-shaped cake, the horn-blowing and fingers in the icing, it's all there). I stayed true, kept it low-key, I kept it real. yes I did, party people. I also managed to dazzle the birthday boy AND slip in a full nights' sleep, miracle of all miracles. and the red streamers-- they will hang (droop) in the dining room for months to come as testament. the polka-dotted bowl filled with feathered party horns will be left out for any future houseguests like happy candy. plus, I like to look at it all, I like the pretty colors. and secretly, I will laugh at all the Tall People who have to duck under each time they pass through the party room. because the Tall People are coming to the house in droves. the Tall People: my husband, my brother. and the Tall People really aren't that tall.

speaking of colors and parties, I'm continuing on with it all this week. I'm like the person who shows up right in the middle of a really fantastic party and then refuses to leave once everyone has gone home. a while back, I stumbled onto this (the internet is all about stumbling and getting lost). absolutely brilliant idea and since it was the original gig that kicked off these whole week-long color parties we've been having, I found it most appropriate to revisit. so, thank you shash, port2port and stephanie-- thanks for the inspiration. I'm not ready to leave the party yet, I hope that's okay. anyone else hanging on out there (or just now arriving)-- it is, indeed, the 11th hour. regardless, here's the week:

monday: yellow
tuesday: blue/turquoise
wednesday: green
thursday: white or brown or black
friday: orange
saturday: red or purple or pink

I know it's late (sunday night-- I know, I know) so feel free to come in the middle or at the end. or not at all. feel free to kick off your shoes and refuse to leave. dance while they bring up the (always sobering and fluorescent) house lights. ignore that guy sweeping up crumbs and confetti. post up some color if you feel like it, some candy to share with the tribe. that's what I'll be doing.

and many more

details to come. (once I sleep off this monumental sugar high).

there was a party

and it was PINK AND RED. in fact, I needed a couple of weeks just to recover from all the pinkness and the redness. the wheels started turning in ava's mind this past spring when she was attending birthday parties left and right. she started to wonder what kind of birthday party SHE should have.

"mommy, I'm thinking about my birthday."

and so of course, I pulled out my trusty martha stewart kids magazines. sweet mary, the love I have for that publication. they're not kidding around, folks. deliciously colorful and well-designed pages filled with serious crafting, pages filled with a million projects that I often daydream ava and I might spend afternoons attempting. I am normally not so good at sharing this mag with the ava-girl, but on this particular occasion we had a party to discuss. we thumbed through page after page of picturesque birthday parties and finally stopped on a spread that featured a perfect-looking little pixie-like girl enjoying herself at a pink-themed soiree.

"hey! pink! a pink party! I like pink!"

then she furrowed her brows and shrugged.

"but I like red, too. red is my FAVORITE COLOR. no. we can't do it."

"ava, why don't we have a pink and red party? there's nothing that says we have to limit it to just one color, kid."

she got all bubbly at the thought and thus the planning began. yes, yes, I know. I am a creative visionary whose brilliance is unmatched (okay, maybe just in the eyes of ava, but I'll take that). and with the planning came the relentless search for all things pink and red. three months of hitting every dollar tree store, every party supply joint in hopes of scoring the pink and red goods. somewhere along the way, my dear cousin from texas (kristy jo) got involved. she had been wanting to plan a visit and when she heard of the birthday festivities... well, we didn't have to twist her arm. three things you should know about this fabulous woman:

1. she has the best laugh EVER and even though she (technically) goes by the name 'kristy', I have refused (since childhood) to call her anything other than 'kristy jo'. usually, it comes out of my mouth so fast it sounds more like 'KRISTYJO!'.

2. she is as crazy as I am (if not crazier) when it comes to parties and celebrations and all things kid-like.

3. one summer at church camp, she colored my entire nose in with a permanent black marker while I was sleeping and then FELL ASLEEP DOING IT. I slept on that marker the entire night, woke up in a pool of black ink. I even thought the prank was kind of funny until I discovered that it WOULD NOT wash off and was forced to walk around with a dark grey nose the rest of the week. the esprit muscle shirts didn't look so cool on me then, NOTHING looked cool on me and my 13 year-old hopes of snagging a cute boy were just so over. I still love her, though. and I have forgiven her and gone on to lead a somewhat normal life. KRISTYJO, YOU WILL NEVER LIVE THIS DOWN.

once my cousin hopped on the party train, I knew we were headed to crazy town. there would be no voice of reason, no one to control the unstoppable force that we are when we get together (I have written about my cousin here as well). three months of planning and emails that included discussions on possible pink and red foods, and what about purchasing a cotton candy machine? and how about a sno-cone machine, too? see, I knew she would genuinely share in the giddiness over my dollar store discovery of the pink paper lanterns and red inflatable tables and chairs. she confessed to me that for a short while, she really thought she might be able to teach herself how to make balloon animals. she knew I would understand and appreciate the madness behind that statement. and I knew the force was with me when she called from a mexican market in san antonio to inform me that she was about to purchase a very, very large strawberry pinata. it arrived at our house in a huge brown box the following week and I thought ava might just pass out from sheer happiness at the sight of it.

the big day has come and gone. watching ava with her little buddies in the midst of that pink and red frenzy completely justified all nuttiness. I will never forget ava (wearing a pink and red outfit she had so carefully put together) proudly saying, "welcome to my party!" to each guest that walked through the front door. the food was phenomenal (my cousin is a party food GENIUS) and the cherry red sno-cones were a smash hit. what else can I say? we did the limbo and painted faces. someone finally busted open the big strawberry pinata and many pink and red treats were snatched up by happy little hands. there was cake (strawberry cream, of course) and there were feathered party hats. I'd like to be able to say that I regret giving all the munckins party horns halfway through the gig, but I can't. that's what party horns are for, they're for tooting loudly and that's an ideology I can really get behind. there were also presents and lots of ripping and tearing of wrapping paper (crowd favorite: a vintage lite brite, courtesy of uncle nate, aunt kendra and luxie... SCORE). and then we sent them on their merry little way with goodie bags filled with pink rubber bracelets, silly sliding whistles, bubble gum and red pixie sticks. yes, I sent them all home on a sugar high to beat all sugar highs, horns in hand and I'm sure the parents were cursing my very existence as the shrill sound of whistles filled many a home that night.

but hey-- it was a party. turning five is a fantastic thing and I hope I have given ava something that she will remember for the rest of her life. I will probably never be able to walk through the dollar store again without scouting out the red and pink goods, but, aahhh-- such a small price to pay. and now we have our very own sno-cone machine (thank you very much, dearest cousin kristyjo), one that will make us the most splendid cherry sno-cones and always remind us of the fabulous pink and red party.

behold the pink and red party splendor here.

party on

one of the many perks of motherhood: witnessing your baby turn one.

I always get a little nutty over the kids' birthdays. when I was six, I became obsessed with a book on childrens' parties and spent hours looking at all the pages devoted to games, favors, decorations and cakes. this (coupled with the fact that my mom always made a big deal out of our birthdays) may be why I get that crazy look in my eyes after I've brought home the goods from our local 'party city'. I truly love doing the party thing, but often bite off a little more than I can chew. like the time I promised ava a big under-the-sea party (complete with elaborate mermaid-shaped cake) after ezra had just been born. the cake alone, man. it needs to be seen to be BELIEVED. I must have been magically fueled by some wacko post-partum hormones. I thought I was going to cry when I cut into that mermaid cake, it had been such a labor of love.

there is only one 'first'... there is only one 'first'... this was the mantra repeated in my birthday-obsessed mind at three in the morning as I sat on the living room floor in a pile of wrapping paper and cut-out stars. earlier that evening (and by earlier, I mean one a.m.) as I was getting ready to bake the cake, I discovered that I was missing a beater. how could this have happened? where could it possibly be? then I vaguely recalled giving it to ezra one afternoon to play with (out of wild desperation, no doubt) and I remembered thinking that I was eventually going to need that thing and would be so mad at myself for not putting it back in its' rightful place. I was certainly right about that (and we will find that lonely little beater someday in some odd place and I'm sure I will have a nice little laugh). I set about mixing the cake by hand with the remaining beater (you better believe I yanked ward away from the computer to do the same, too) and I worked myself up into quite a little stirring frenzy, a sort of rapid full-body cake-mixing jig, if you will. I'll admit, I went a little nuts. but the mantra (there is only one 'first'... there is only one 'first') was beginning to take on a life of its own, common sense nowhere to be found.



of course, it was all worth it. a million times over, it's always worth it. watching ezra smile and grab at what seemed like thousands of streamers and stars that I climbed up and down the ladder to hang. watching his big brown eyes light up at the sight of the balloons, singing 'happy birthday' to him for the very first time, watching him stick his sweet little hand in the blue icing of the cake I had so much fun decorating, getting his first taste of that sticky, sugary loveliness. witnessing him squish the cake between his fingers and smear it all over his face... nothing quite like it, really.

happy first birthday, kid. we did it up right.



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