Where the fairies live

Click to enlarge

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And it's got a door, too. (Of course it does, how else would they get in?)
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The party was a smashing success, the birthday girl was thrilled, but I'm utterly shattered and still have a late night conference call with California to get through so the cake will have to do it for tonight. I'm not even looking at the actual party photos until tomorrow. (Excuse the shiny flash reflection, all the natural lighting shots came out strangely discolored. I think all the beige in my kitchen was throwing off the white balance or something but I was too busy to take the time to sort it out.)
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Have a great rest of the day everyone. I'll be by to visit tomorrow.
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Eight

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Yesterday my son Itai turned eight (and no, I have no idea how that happened. I swear he was just born last week.), and with eight my husband and I reached a new stage in our parenting journey - the stage that stabs an icy cold tentacle of fear into the heart of every parent.

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The slumber party.

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We've done the horribly big, horribly loud, invite the whole class of 35 + assorted extra kids, hire a professional entertainer party. Lots of times. It's loud, it's chaotic, and it's expensive, but it's all over in two hours.

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This year he (we) kicked it up a notch and went all out. It started when I agreed to a party with 5 or 6 kids. I know his friends, they're sweet kids and not too out of control, I was confident that we could rise to the challenge.

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Only one small snag. My son is what you might call popular (how this happened I have no idea, his father and I were much closer to the other end of the scale). Once he started inviting, he couldn't stop. If he invited this one he'd have to invite that one, with that one then also that one, so that he wouldn't be left out. And so on. (And they told two friends, and they told two friends...)

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In addition to my own two kids we ended up with eleven invitees - all of whom said yes! (Aack! Panic panic panic!) Thankfully when the day came one was sick (ok, not thankful about that, but you know what I mean), two were no shows (so very Israeli) and one announced that he couldn't stay overnight. That left us with a total of 10 kids in the house, nine of whom were going to be rowdy sugared-up second graders. We stocked up on balloons (the long skinny ones are great for safe swordfights and other low-impact creativity), ordered pizza and let 'em loose.

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It was utter bedlam for several hours and there were two kids who couldn't manage to get along and drove me nearly insane (one of whom decided at 10:30pm that he couldn't fall asleep and asked to go home. Umm, sure. And don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out kid.) Most of them never did settle down to watch movies, but eventually they calmed down a bit and by 11:30 everyone was sound asleep, not to stir until well after 7:00.

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Nothing got broken (except a stupid beanbag snake that sprung a few leaks and shot plastic pellets all over the house), no blood was drawn and no one went to the hospital, so all in all I'd say it was a success. Most importantly the kids had fun and everyone went home smiling (and if I'm very lucky this will now start a trend and other kids will start having sleepovers at least, even if their parents aren't up for a full-blown slumber party).

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And to top it off, Itai actually asked for the world's easiest cake this year so at least on that front I got off VERY easy:

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Where I've Been All Weekend

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Whew, now I can sit back and breathe a bit - the princess party we threw for Maya tonight was a resounding success. Five little princesses in their finest frippery spent the evening cavorting to their hearts' content, going home two hours later spent and happy, wearing the ribbon "crowns" they made and clutching goody bags full of sweet surprises. Their baser side was not neglected either, as they bashed the crap out of a butterfly pinata. This was a new one for all of the guests, pinatas have only just become available in Israel and most people still don't know what they are (Maya saw one on Dora and determined that this was a must for any self-respecting birthday party - her other requirements included "cake" and "decorations").
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This was the first time Maya has had, or even been interested in having, a real "friends" party. Normally children in Israel invite their entire class, upwards of 25 children, plus however many outside friends. (This large size means that parents generally hire professional entertainers to handle the insane amount of kid-wrangling necessary.)
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Maya's not really the big loud entertainer type though, nor does she like large crowds or sound systems, so she and I decided that small and intimate was the way to go. We invited four close friends (the only other two girls in her class and two other friends) and threw a princess party, because there is nothing dearer to Maya's heart right now than princesses, unless perhaps it's chocolate milk. Having so few children meant that we (I) would be serving as party mistress extraordinaire, and I will freely admit that I was quaking in my crocs. The thought of having to entertain a group of children used to a polished, action-packed performance left me with a major knot in my stomach. Still, they are little girls, and I myself was one of those once, so I crossed my fingers, wrote up a list of activities, closed my eyes and jumped.
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And it worked. Everyone had a ball. It was completely over the top girly and very very pink and they loved it. Heck, even I had fun, and my husband outdid himself managing the background logistics while my son discovered his inner DJ. A real family effort.

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Maya, who stayed in her costume (including her crown! And her braids! She asked me for braids!) the entire evening (!) was beaming from ear to ear. She was absolutely thrilled and very much enjoyed her moment in the spotlight. Her smile made all of the behind the scenes effort worth it. There's no question that a professional entertainer makes life easier, albeit more expensive, but the satisfaction you get from knowing that YOU are the one to put that smile on all those little faces and see them gasp in wonder when they discover that the strange thing they've been whacking with that stick is full of CANDY is in another class entirely.

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Happy birthday Princess Maya. You earned every bit of this one kiddo.

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(Photos cropped to remove other people's kids.)

Striiiiiike!

The birthday party report. (And yes, he's wearing the jersey. Are you surprised?)

Through what was apparently sheer willpower alone Itai managed to keep his fever down long enough for us to agree that he could go to school Friday morning (they have short days on Fridays) to celebrate his birthday with his class as planned (just chocolate balls, fruit punch, party favors and a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday - this is party light), then home to nap for two hours (Jay slept, Itai didn't) before heading off to his own birthday party that afternoon.

He'd invited 10 kids to a bowling party, 2 were also down with the flu but the 8 that came had a great time - once we went to the correct bowling alley. Yes, I'm an utter and complete idiot and brought everyone to the wrong bowling alley! I had no idea there were two. I walked in, kids and a few accompanying parents in tow and cake in hand to find out that they had no record of me whatsoever! Luckily the correct location wasn't far away and turned out to be much lower key and a great place for a group of young kids.

Itai was pretty much running on adrenalin alone but he had a great time, and even Maya bowled a few rounds with a bit of help from mom. (Do they call them rounds? I have no idea. I haven't been bowling in at least twenty years...) We even bumped into a famous basketball player at the bowling alley - didn't excite me all that much, truth be told I had no idea who he was, but one of the other fathers was utterly thrilled, even got a picture of his kid sitting on the guy's lap. And to warm my over-achieving cake decorating heart, all the kids flipped over the cake, and the staff in the place even thought it was professionally done (if it had been I'd have overpayed, it really looked pretty amateurish up close LOL).

All in all, Itai had a great, and reasonably healthy, day, but the excitement did him in. He relapsed the following morning and ended up home sick again today. His fever's been gone for 24 hours now though, so it's back to school again in the morning.

Just to keep us on our toes though Jay is now sick, which is threatening to do in our very long awaited two nights away at a fabulous spa up north. Send us all some healthy vibes if you've got 'em. We've had quite enough illness already and mama really really REALLY needs a massage... (Update: Jay's still sick, looks like we're postponing. We'll try again mid-March.)

I'm off to go sleep on the couch now. No need to risk catching whatever Jay's got.

The birthday that wasn't

Poor Itai. Today is his 7th birthday, and where is he? Upstairs sleeping in my bed, his body wracked by fever. He's really sick, and SO disappointed. We had to cancel the celebrations in his afternoon program today, and needless to say he will not be showing all his friends his new Maccabi Haifa soccer jersey* today. We tried to cheer him up a bit by offering to celebrate his birthday this morning instead of waiting until tonight, but the poor thing just couldn't get out of bed.


So instead of the birthday cake and festivities planned for him at his afternoon program he'll get a few cupcakes out of the freezer arranged like a seven (I did at least put his name on them) . I just hope that he's healthy again by Friday - he's supposed to celebrate with his class then, and his actual birthday party (bowling - the latest fad among the 7 year old set) is scheduled for Friday afternoon (and lest anyone think I've lost my birthday cake decorating drive, yes, I'm planning on making an actual cake for that one, I just didn't figure he needed two different ones in one day).

Keep your fingers crossed that this passes quickly - and that it doesn't strike anyone else in the family! Jay and I are supposed to go away for two nights mid-next week and we don't have coverage if the kids are sick!

* The new jersey has quite a story behind it. Last week Itai and I were leaving our building when he saw a man in a Maccabi Haifa jacket waiting for the elevator. He immediately started talking to him about the team. Next thing I know the guy was asking Itai who his favorite player was and what is his shirt size. Turns out, he's the official printer for the national soccer league. He promised Itai a team shirt. Since I had no idea who he was or how likely he was to follow through I warned Itai not to get his hopes up. Imagine my surprise when there was a knock on the door last night and there stood this same neighbor and his 3-year old daughter, Maccabi Haifa bag in hand! He was grinning from ear to ear as he presented Itai with an official #12 soccer jersey - signed by nearly the whole team! Itai was so excited I'm surprised he didn't sleep with the shirt last night. One of the first things he said when he realized he couldn't go to school today was that now no one would see his new shirt. (See my previous post for a picture of my oh so proud soccer fan modeling his new threads.)

Flower Power

Maya had her preschool party today. She and her friend M (they celebrate in pairs) sang and danced their way through a slew of Hebrew birthday songs and activities, culminating in the perennial favorite "Where's the Cake?" song, followed obviously by the grand entrance of the cake and then of course the "Foo'ing The Candles" song. (And yes, to "foo" is a verb, didn't you know? Actually, it sort of is in Hebrew. They really do tell children to "say foo".)

Maya had a ball - she was thrilled to have her moment in the sun and was just beaming from ear to ear the whole time, and we beamed right back seeing her participating so beautifully and enjoying herself so much.

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(I didn't get any decent pictures today that didn't have a lot of other people's kids in them, so since I don't put other kids' photos on the internet without permission I substituted this one taken by a photographer friend a few weeks ago. It's the same dress, and captures her exuberance today perfectly. If you can't tell, she's actually in mid-air (hence the crazy hair). And no, I don't know yet if I'm having it framed. He took a ton and I haven't made the final selection yet. More on that some other time...)

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Happy birthday Miss Mouse, we love you so very much.

She had such a great day (minus one post-party letdown meltdown of atomic proportions, but we'll skip that little anecdote. Bygones.) that this is where she ended up this evening. Note the half-eaten pita on the kitchen floor. (So that you can truly appreciate this, this is only the second time in her entire life that she's fallen asleep mid-stream like this. The first time was about a year ago and we found her inside a laundry basket LOL.)

Happy Birthday Maya Mouse

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Maya turned four years old today. We had a lovely, low-key celebration with just a couple of close friends. When asked whether she'd had a nice birthday, Maya summed it up by saying "I had a cake that was a clown, and I foo'd the candles! Are there more presents?" Funny girl...

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She pored over my cake books for weeks before finally deciding on a clown for today.

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The biggest hit of the day was the hot pink Tweety Bird pillow she got from her brother. No surprise there - she's been stopping by the toy store several times a week for the past month to "visit" it!

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For her preschool party next Friday she'll be sharing with another boy, a good friend, and they're both thrilled to bits to be celebrating together. Come back next week for more pictures, including what will hopefully be an adorable flower cake with cookie petals.

WFMW - frosting faces

This is more of a pre- or post-birthday tip, but it's something I remember very fondly from my own childhood. If you've used decorating frosting or piping gel (the stuff that comes in those tubes) to decorate a cake, save the last bit and use it to draw smiley faces on your kids' palms or fingertips - a surefire way to put a smile on their faces as well, and loads of fun to lick off.

And here are a few bonuses for you since I love decorating cakes and really enjoy all the effort it takes to do something special. I have terrific memories of my mother making special birthday cakes for me, and am thrilled to be passing that along to my own children. They've taken it quite to heart, too, and will spend hours flipping through my cake books trying to decide what they might want for their next birthday, even if that birthday is still months away!

If you're looking for a super-easy cake decorating idea, I posted this one a few months ago. For more advanced inspiration (read: takes work to make) here are a few others I've done (scroll down for pics).

Check out Rocks In My Dryer for more great birthday tips.

Works for Me Wednesday - Easy Birthday Cake

I decided to participate in Shannon's (Rocks In My Dryer) Works For Me Wednesday post this week. Check it out - there are loads of great ideas there.

Here's a foolproof super-easy idea for a birthday cake - great for when you don't have time to fuss.


Photo Frame Cake


(This one stayed in the pan so that it would be easier for me to bring to my son's school. It looks better if you take it out.)







You need:

Photograph of the birthday kid
1 square cake
frosting
loads of colored candies, whatever kind the child likes

Take a photo (preferably cropped square) of the birthday kid. (Laminate or seal in a ziploc bag if you want to keep the picture safe.

Bake your favorite cake in a square pan. Frost. Lay the photo in the middle. Cover the rest of the cake (sides too if you wish, but that's optional) with the candy to form a picture frame. Presto, a fun cake sure to impress all your young party guests.

Note: I've found that M&M type candies work really well to cover the cake. Unfortunately, they were off limits this time since they aren't dairy-free (cake had to be kosher pareve) and I was stuck with whatever dairy-free candies I could find. A full face brightly colored photo also works best, but Itai really wanted the picture of him blowing out the candles on his wizard's hat cake (scroll down for pic) from his "friends" party. I did like the juxtaposition of a cake with a kid blowing out candles while he blows out his candles though. Sort of a Hall of Mirrors type thing LOL.

In the blink of an eye...

He went from this


to this


Happy birthday Itai-boop. I love you no end. All the way up until space.

(Get a load of that costume. The magician had him wearing that gold hat and cape the whole time. He loved it.)

And for those playing our little confectionary guessing game, it was this:

It's a wizard's hat (or rather it was, since it's gone now LOL). Ignore the fuzzy looking edges - it's the reflection off the tinfoil.

I'd love to write a long mushy post about how quickly the past 6 years have flown by and how much motherhood has changed me, but truthfully I'm way too tired. G'night everyone. I'm going to bed.