Jared's Birthday

I wrote a birthday tribute post to Jared, but never posted pictures of his actual birthday. We just had a small family celebration but Jared was really excited to open presents and have cake and did I mention open presents?

I made a "Tiger Cake"- a recipe I clipped from the Oregonian ages ago (made with extra-virgin olive oil and pepper- yes, olive oil)- and homemade mint-chocolate-chip ice cream for his family celebration. It was yum-o-licious, if I do say so myself.

 Kind of like marbled pound cake with a bite (Tiger Cake, a bite... get it? ha ha). Jared agreed wholeheartedly.

Dave's mom flew out for a visit to save me from my summer chaos and help me get organized before school started. She arrived on Jared's birthday, just in time to join us for our celebration.

Jared blowing out his candles:

It's hard to believe that my baby is nine- well maybe not that hard to believe....

Happy Birthday, Jared!

Summer-y Summary Part IV: Jared's Birthday

With a couple of exceptions, I mostly remember birthdays growing up being fun but pretty low-key affairs. Mom would bake a cake mix and decorate the cake with frosting and those stick-on candies that said "Happy Birthday." We would have some friends over and watch a movie or play on the slip and slide. We might even get to go with mom or dad to get our free birthday meal at Denny's. But I don't remember ever having huge elaborate parties. I didn't have a "friend party" every year. And I never went to an outside place like Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday.

So I don't know how I got swept up into big birthdays. Maybe it was because when we lived in California our student apartment complex had a tradition of huge birthday parties where you would invite basically all of the kids who lived in that courtyard and have a huge party. You kind of felt like a cop-out if you didn't at least have a huge cake with games and a pinata. Maybe it is because Dave always says, "Oh that would be fun for the kids, we should do it!" but somehow I always get sucked into doing a friend party. Part of me is crochety-old-person that says, "What was good enough for me is good enough for my kids. They don't need a party every year!! That will make them start to feel entitled and create spoiled kids, right?" (Now I'm REALLY starting to sound like an old person...) =] But part of me is a sucker and always ends up doing something... which usually escalates into something bigger and more expensive than I intended.

It seems like every year I say, "This year is going to be low-key. We don't need a friend party every year." And this has started to work a little bit. (Translation: My kids no longer assume that birthday = big pinata and 10+ kids coming over.) But although I have been successful at paring down the party, we always seem to end up doing something. Maybe that is a good compromise and I should leave it at that.

This year when Jared turned 8 I told him we weren't doing a friend party this year. Instead he could choose 1 friend to go to Chuck E. Cheese with us for lunch on his birthday and we would get some tokens. Nice, easy, low-key. Of course that one friend ended up turning into 5, but who's counting? Fine, I am a sucker.

Pictures of Camryn's Garden Birthday Party

Here are some fun pix from Camryn's garden birthday party that I threw for her, inspired by the plan she drew up. We ate snacks, decorated visors, made tissue-paper flowers, planted seeds in tiny pots-- and had cake and ice cream of course. We usually make a special decorated cake, but she requested an angel food cake with berries and whipped cream, so the cake pictures aren't too exciting. It was fun and much more smooth than last's year's princess party (with 12 four and five-year-old girls). I guess maybe I am learning something as I go (like don't throw a party for 12 kids if you value your sanity). =]

A Party? Naturally!

I have been debating whether to throw Camryn a friend party for her birthday (which was a week and a half ago) or not. I don't believe in throwing a big bash every year (especially after last year's 12-preschool-girl-princess-and-craft-extravaganza), but somehow I always seem to get sucked in. So I've been throwing around different ideas for a low-key easy party... maybe just get some pizza, maybe go to the park? (Is it just me or does it seem like birthday parties weren't such huge bashes when you were a kid? Does anyone else go into convulsions at the thought of having to herd 12 preschool girls through "Pin The Crown on the Princess" and gluing jewels and flowers on fun-foam crowns?)

I asked Camryn what she wanted, warning her that we needed to keep it fairly small and simple. She went to work and planned the party for me. She decided that she wanted a "Nature Party" and she drew up the following schedule: (I'm doing my best to represent how she drew this all over the page, you'll have to use your imagination...)

1 Plant Plants
2 look fore moths
A butterfly dance look fore-a-partner 3
4 resece [recess]
cake and ice crem Goode8bags
5 pinyata playtim7e
6 presints h9ome

Well, if she is going to go to all the work to actually plan the party for me, how can I say no? So we are going to do a "nature party." We are planting seeds in teeny pots, decorating visors (with self-stick instead of glued decorations- yes, even I occasionally learn my lesson), and making flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners. We are skipping the pinata, but will be doing playtime, "presints" and "goodebags." It should be fewer girls than last year (and a year older), so we will see how it goes.... Wish me luck!

So I Guess TV Can Be Useful...

Dave spent today at work, so midway through the afternoon I decided I needed a break. I decided to let my kids watch TV for a while, monitoring them by ear (you know, go check if it's too quiet or if you hear some disaster breaking loose) while I "worked" on the computer writing a blog post and wasting time on facebook.

After I had sufficiently decompressed, I went back into the family room and kitchen. I found that Jackson had taken some baby food that was sitting open on the table and splattered it all over his khaki pants, the floor and part of the wall. While not thrilled about this, it was a small price to pay for a few moments of quiet. Jared and Camryn were still happily zoned out watching "Max and Ruby" on TV.

I went into the kitchen to start cleaning up the squash splatters when I heard the title of the new episode that was starting: "Ruby's Birthday Party." I suddenly remembered that Camryn was supposed to go to a birthday party at 2:00 pm and it was now almost 2:25. Crap! I yelled for the kids to get their shoes on and made a mad dash upstairs for the wrapping paper. The phone rang and the birthday girl's mom was on the phone asking if I was still planning on coming. I apologized profusely, explaining that I just totally spaced it (Do I have early onset Alzheimer's?) and remembered when the TV show the kids were watching was about a birthday party. At least she got a good laugh out of it.

I wrapped the gift in record time and we were off. Luckily it wasn't too far away. Does anyone else find that motherhood destroys brain cells? Or at least your memory?

Jared's Birthday

Today was Jared's 7th birthday. Yes, I now have a seven-year-old. That makes me feel old. We had a friend party on Wednesday, (1/2 off night at Safari Sams and a cake mix cake with a Transformer stuck on it-- yes, I'm creative) so today was pretty low key. I made coffeecake for breakfast and we stuck candles in it. (Note to self: Don't stick candles in a hot cake. They melt and leave yummy wax pools.) After our yummy breakfast, Dave and I retired into the office to debate over the presents I bought last night in the 15 minutes before Target closed. We decided on to keep a few of them for Jared to open and then give him a "certificate" to go buy a portable basketball hoop for our yard/garage.

We managed to be late-again- to 2 pm church. But despite our tardiness and the fact that Jackson is now loud and wiggly for the entire 3 hour block, it was an enjoyable set of meetings. I made garlic herb salmon for dinner (Jared even requested it: that would bring tears to my dad's eyes to have a child REQUEST fish for dinner) and then had ice cream for dessert.

As I was putting Jared to bed he said, "Mom, did you and dad buy anything for my birthday that you decided to return? Like anything with Transformers on it?" We actually had. I asked him how he knew this. "Oh, I saw a box in the office that said 'Transformers' on it." I told him that we decided to keep a few things and return some so we could get him the basketball hoop instead. The basketball hoop would last longer.

"Well, mom," Jared said, "I think Transformers last for a really long time. They can even last forever. They don't rust. Really.... unless you stick them on a birthday cake."

Mystery and Mayhem

I am back at the library checking my email with Jackson pulling my hair, trying to escape the observation of the mean library lady that Suzie Petunia encountered. No, my computer did not die again. My laptop was stolen yesterday. Yes, stolen. From the office inside the master bedroom. You might think that I misplaced or lost it, but I use this laptop like a desktop-- it always sits in the exact same spot in the office off the master bedroom. The wireless is spotty, so I leave it plugged in to the ethernet. So no, I did not misplace it. It is officially stolen.

In good news, for those of you who haven't heard, our house finally sold and we close tomorrow. Yesterday movers came to move the remaining furniture that we used to stage our house to the new house. So after a 5 month dearth of places to sit, I have furniture again!!!

The movers were supposed to come about 11:00 am. So at 10:30, you would think that I would be madly picking up the house or clearing space in the garage, right? Well you might think that, but I was on my laptop in the upstairs office, checking facebook and tweaking with my blog (this is why I remember that, yes, it was in the same spot it always is). The movers called and said they were going to be late, so at 11:00 I left and took the kids to a friend's house to be babysat and headed to the old house to supervise the operation. They got there, without tools to disassemble the bunk beds or play structure, but despite my slight irritation, a trip to the garage at the new house fixed that problem. Taking apart the play structure took forever, but at about 2:30 we took over the truck and started unloading, leaving a few outdoor things to take in a second load.

After giving the movers the quick home tour (there's the kids room where the bunk beds go, that's the master bedroom- we aren't moving anything in there) and pointing out where things should go, I went to the kitchen to make chocolate frosting for Jared's birthday cake. You see, I in my infinite foresight and scheduling capability, set Jared's birthday party for the night on the same day that the movers were coming to transport our furniture to the new house. Yes, I am a bright one.

So they went about their business and I went about making chocolate frosting (incidentally, I accidentally doubled the cocoa and discovered that this improves the quality of the frosting immensely). When they were done, we went back to the other house, they loaded the outdoor stuff while I got the kids from their friend's house and we came back home. I paid the movers and then commenced to clean like a maniac to get ready for Jared's party. I bribed Jared and Camryn to play with Jackson and keep him entertained while I removed enough Cheerios to feed a 3rd world country from our kitchen floor. Connie came over a few minutes early and at 5:55 we were running out the door to Safari Sams.

For Jared's party, I had him invite a handful of friends to Safari Sams for 1/2 off night. We were not an "official" party, because I am too cheap for that. So we went "unofficially" to 1/2 off night, got 1/2 off admission, 1/2 off pizza and a bunch of tokens and then went back to our house at 8:00 for cake, ice cream and presents. I noticed that the front door was unlocked-- not too surprising considering that we were running out the door so we wouldn't be late for our own party. At about 8:30 everyone left our house, so I sent the kids upstairs to get ready for bed and went to the office in the master bedroom to nurse Jackson and check my email. I walked in and there was a noticeable bare spot in the 2-foot deep mess on my desk. "Wait a second, my laptop isn't here." I looked around, but didn't see it anywhere. Then I started to panic. I quizzed the kids: "Did you touch my laptop?" before it occurred to me that they had been gone all day and when they were home they were playing with Jackson or at the party. While I quizzed the older kids I realized that I had left Jackson- who now crawls- in my room with the door open. I ran back as fast as I could, but got back just in time to see him rolling down thae stairs screaming. Luckily we have carpeted stairs and the stairs have a landing 1/2 way, so he didn't roll that far and he was OK. But, I was traumatized by it, as if I wasn't traumatized enough by my laptop being stolen out of my master bedroom. Where was my husband? Why did we not install the gate at the top of the stairs when we knew Jackson could crawl and he loves to go for the stairs whenever he gets a chance? Oh yeah, Dave is in Austin, Texas on a business trip. At least that rules him out as a laptop-taking suspect.

After recovering from Jackson's fall, I tried to recall the events again. Nobody at the party went upstairs. I ran around to check the house, but nothing else was missing or appeared to even be touched: the plasma TV, the Wii, the DVR. My wedding ring-- I had taken it off because of a rash so it had been sitting in the jewelry drawer of my dresser. I ran to check, but it was there, untouched. There was no sign of anyone breaking and entering. The only thing gone was my laptop.

I called the moving company and the supervisor told me that all his guys are clean, have worked for him forever, etc. but that I should call the police and have them check it out. So I called the police and sent someone over. It turned out to be our old home teacher, who is a police officer. He checked it out and filed a report. I called Dave to see if he had the serial number for the laptop, but we had it kept on the computer (yep, we're smart). We should have it on our backup hardrive (which incidentally was sitting next to the computer but they didn't take), but I can't get into that without a computer.

So here I am, back at the library, getting mauled by Jackson on my lap while I sit here to vent. I think one of the movers took it: they had access to the upstairs for at least an hour, I was in another room busy with something else. Sure, someone could have broken in and left by the front door, but why did they only take the laptop? I can see not taking the TV because that is big and hard to move, but why not the Wii? (Maybe because the Wii was in the same room that I was in the entire time.) I just think it is weird that there were no dumped drawers, nothing disturbed or missing, except for my laptop (which, incidentally, is three years old and not worth all that much anyway--- except to me!!!). Grrr.