Some of the best boy laughs come when they are playing games on Justin's iPod. He is so good to teach Nathan and Hyrum how to play and they even disappear with his iPod occasionally. I themed his birthday around their favorite games to try to out score each other on: Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, and Cut The Rope.
The Food
Cut the Rope Star Breadsticks and German Chocolate Spiders
Fruit Ninja Juice and Fruit Platter (with an Avocado Ninja)
The Activities (and a peek at the cake)
We knocked the
We tossed peppermint candy into Om Nom's mouth while those not tossing tried to deflect the candy with pom pom spiders.
We used our
Erika did an excellent job on the pinata!
She used two balloons, built up around it with cardboard, did two layers of paper mache, covered it in little strips of crepe paper, added spots and filled it up with health(ier) treats . . . granola bars, fruit snacks, fruit leather, pens, trail mix packages, crackers, gum and Mentos. It took a real beating and held up long enough for each of us to take a turn being the Fruit Ninja.
The Cake
Making this cake was like spending 2 hours playing with edible play dough. Though it was fondant, the concept was the same. His Cocoa Pebbles Marshmallow Fondant Cake was all charged and ready for the party. When we lit the candles and he was about to blow them out he paused and said, "hold on, I need to check facebook first", and then reached into the flames to press the facebook fondant icon. The only problem with a cake this fun is that he didn't want to eat it. Finally, he gave in and dished out an icon to those who wanted them. Then he too sat with a side of ice cream and a German Chocolate Spider balancing on top of a slice of iPod and laughed with us while we relived the silliness of the night.
For his birthday gifts I had a binder with Lindsey Stirling violin music in it and 3 tickets to the Lindsey Stirling concert in Salt Lake. He was happy to see the binder (mom, this orchestra music is so boring and easy) but when he saw the tickets he thought they were a joke. Once he realized they were real he couldn't stop talking about it.
He got to pick two people to go to the concert with him (Erika and Derek) but by the time the concert came around five weeks later Erika had a new job and didn't feel comfortable taking time off for it so I got to go with the boys. We were a little shocked by the setting and environment and felt bad for people who stood for 3 hours with their little kids and grandparents. The tickets didn't warn us of this and as a matter of fact, they stated on them "all ages welcome". Hmmmm, not sure that all ages want to be welcome with a marijuana haze in the room but okay, now we know. It wasn't Lindsey that set the environment, it was the building and owners of the club we were at. I guess dub step violin is treated equal to a rock concert and the Lindsey Stirling fans (us included) were not aware of this.
The group that opened for Lindsey was laaaaame. One guy was in pajamas and looked like he had just crawled out of bed, another was dressed like he came directly from Woodstock in the 60's, the female guitarist probably fumbled her high self right out of a VW van but the male guitarist was not a bad looker, probably just drunk. They took the first 45 minutes, while we were all standing, waiting for Lindsey, wishing Lindsey would come out, hoping they wouldn't slaughter another Beetles song. The base pounding through the speakers was phenomenal(ly loud!). We did our best to ignore the lack of entertainment on stage by using our glow sticks (that were handed to us as we walked in the door) to make jewelry. The boys had me all dressed up so they wouldn't lose me in the loud, hazy crowd.
And then Lindsey came on stage. A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!!!
She was funny, clever, danced so well and was incredible on the violin! We didn't think seeing her live would be as wow-ing as watching her online videos (knowing we weren't going to have fire and water on stage) but we were completely wrong. Now, the videos seem a little repetitive and not near as cool as they were before seeing her in concert. Even with the lame opening act, the headaches that Justin and I got from the marijuana smell and standing for three hours, it was well worth our money.
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As I got each thing ready for Justin's party I showed them to Jenell. I was excited about my pattern-free Om Nom, the amateur paint job of the Angry Bird cans, and I was thrilled with Erika's pinata and wanted to share them with the only other female in the house. Her response was to tell me about the only birthday party she had (when she was 14) and how awful it was because her mom had her friends make bead jewelry that they baked after they were finished creating and how her mom gave them all lotion for gifts and she was so embarrassed (that's for old ladies) and she had nothing good to say about the party or her mom. Her other details kind of slipped past me because my own mind started worrying that Justin's party was going to be too childish. What if he didn't like it and 5 years later he is telling his friends about his lame birthday party? I tried justifying it by knowing that if he was going to have a group of 14 year old boys over I would do something completely different but our birthday parties are for our family. In a moment of panic I wanted to call a friend or sister to get their opinion but I would have to give so much back story about the party, Jenell's story, etc., that I decided to call Erika. Never in a moment of panic have I depended on Erika. She was amazing! She said all the right things and was encouraging and uplifting and happy and told me to do the party exactly as I had planned. Not only was I over my worry about the party but I was emotional at having such a great moment with Erika. It is wonderful becoming best friends with her.
1 comment:
I am in AWE of the party, the mothering, the sentiments. I LOVED it all and I love you. (So, so much!)
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