Happy Memorial Day!

For the fifth year in a row, we have kicked off the summer with a Memorial Day pool party. This year we had 9 swimmers and five parents. Days like today (almost) make the hassle of the pool worth it. As all cooking-with-fire implements had been moved to New Town, the party started after lunch at 1:00. We had watermelon and popsicles and lots of lemonade. The kids had a blast and the parents got to visit. Perfect. I think I even managed to keep everyone from getting sun burned! Huzzah! The last of the guests left around 5:30. When I got up to make dinner, this is what I found when I called them in to eat.

Post-birthday Wrap Up

Not to brag or anything (okay, I am totally bragging), but I ROCKED the kids' birthdays this year. My mom wasn't much for birthday parties. I was the third kid and she was tired. After the year she ordered the 3-D Cookie Monster cake and I got the flu so she had to cancel the party she was pretty much done. I was three. Anyhoo, I guess that is why I feel compelled to at least put forth some effort in the party area.

Z's princess party was the event of the year with the pre-school set. We had it at the Princess Room of a local store. Z calls it the Princess Parlor. All the little girls got to wear princess dresses, have their nails sparkle painted, make-up done with face jewels and have their hair done with sparkly clips and ribbon scrunchies. All I had to provide was the cake: a massive, fondant covered, iridescent princess castle. I really outdid myself. No one could believe that I had done it myself. The girls got to take home a pink feather boa and a little fuzzy pink purse with lip gloss, body glitter, powder and some jewelry inside. They were in heaven. All the girls clustered around Z when she opened her presents and looked like we had cornered the market on pink, sparkly, pre-school glamour.

Q's construction party was much more low-key, but I think it was just as fun. I made a hard hat cake with construction cone candles. Too cute! We had planned a picnic in a park with cake and punch and all of our friends and family. Earlier in the week, the weather was perfect. I had even dressed the kids in shorts. But, this being Texas and all, the weather changed. It went from the mid-80's on Thursday to the low 40's today. I guess it was a good thing I totally dropped the ball and hadn't invited anyone. Heh.

We ended up doing the cake and punch part, but we did it at home with just us, the grandparents, Sister L and her husband R. Who needs a park when you have a doting aunt and uncle? Sister L is better than any park! Q is particularly fond of R because he is so willing to play pirates with him. In fact, it was R who introduced him to the game back at Christmas by putting his eye patch on him for the first time. Q turned all gifts into part of his piratical ensemble: the knight costume, the pirate accessories, the lion in the Fisher Price jungle, the vacuum cleaner. It was all good. Aaaaaarrrg!

What All the Fuss Was About

All the hoo-ha surrounding Princess Z's Party invites produced these:

Alpha Mom

I am not a competitive mom. One of the (many) reasons I love Z's school is that everyone is so laid back. They would never even raise an eyebrow if you brought store-bought cookies for the class Thanksgiving feast... Perhaps this is why I always go over the top with the homemade baked goods. Everyone is extra appreciative because they know that you didn't have to do it.

I am totally bummed that you can't tell how cute my turkey couple is in person. I started with yellow cake mix and store-bought chocolate frosting. The hen on the left was (obviously) the easier of the two. I just squeezed the frosting out of a zip top bag, making a large blob for a head, then poked in the candy corn and candy eyes.

The tom, while still totally doable, took a little more work. First I frosted and sprinkled the cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles. Then I decorated a Nutter Butter for the head with white frosting, candy dots for the irises, a candy corn beak and a Twizzlers* wattle. I used assorted colors of Twizzlers for the tail and chocolate Twizzlers cut on an angle for the wings.

Next year, I think I will just do a miniature version of the hen. How much sugar does a four-year-old really need, anyway? I know that they will just be licking off all of the icing!

Last year, I made turkeys out of rice krispie treats and chocolate chip cookies. The tail and beak were made of candy corn. Chocolate frosting glued the whole thing together.

Clearly I was very pleased with myself.

Of course, I should expect the post-party-teachers to hate me, seeing as how I got the kids all hopped up on chocolate covered sugar bombs, then left them to deal with it. I'm awesome like that.

*I think Twizzlers are vile, but kids seem to love them!

Oodles of Love

Today is the big day: after seven years, I finally get to through Chica a baby shower! How cute is that invitation? (None of this is Chica's info, of course. I copied the picture from the My Expression website.) I woke early and hit the ground running. First I made the sangria. Nothing like liquor first thin in the morning! I had to sample a little. Tasty!

Next, I started on the diaper cake. Chica had made one for me when she threw the shower for Z's arrival. It was the kind that wraps the diapers up into one giant jelly-roll of diapers (as opposed to the kind where you bundle up multiple bundles into layers). Chica held mine together with a zillion stick pins. All the directions I read recommended rubber bands. So of course, rubber bands were the one thing I forgot to get. Luckily, mom-in-law is prepared for anything. She had rubber bands of all sizes - even the super huge one I needed for the largest layer (50+ diapers!). It took a while to get the hang of it, but it turned out so CUTE! Unfortunately, my camera is still being held hostage by the nice people at Precision Camera, repairing the flash I suspect was traumatized by Z. I used one of the other hostesses cameras and took about a million pictures of both the diaper cake and the rest of the shower. I was like baby shower paparazzi! I will post a picture as soon as she sends me one.

I hosted the shower with Chica's two sisters-in-law at her mom's house. I was a bit of a shower nazi, but they were a joy to work with. They let me do all the fun stuff like the invitations and the diaper cake. I guess that was practical, as transporting food over 100 miles would not make for good eats. We did mini quiches, scones with all the trimmings, a gorgeous fruit plate, chilie cheese polenta (okay, corn casserole squares, but polenta sounds so much fancier!) and adorable cupcakes with frosting booties on them.

Chica's mom was initially scandalized at the menu, but I think she came around. She was so impressed with how pretty everything looked. It should have; we used all of her stuff. It was like entertaining in a four-star catering facility. Gorgeous silver and crystal serving pieces. Heirloom silver baby cups and rattles. Beee-yew-tee-ful!

Baby showers are always so much fun. All the tiny little clothes! One of the other hostesses and I got Chica a purple Britax infant car seat (squee!). Purple is Chica's fave color. Mine too. Even though we got her the big gift, I couldn't resist buying Oodle (what the birth mother started calling the unborn baby) a tiny pale purple dress with brown polka dots. Adorable! I also tracked down the book Little Miss Spider by David A. Kirk. It is a lovely story that ends with this verse:

When finding a mother
There is one certain test
You must look for the creature
Who loves you the best.

Oodle is one lucky baby.

Headless Chicken, Anyone?

So tomorrow is the big Baby Shower day. I had done all I could do remotely, so today I loaded up the offspring and drove to Ginormousville to gather up the rest. Thank god for my mom-in-law. She corralled the kids and shooed me off on the hunt. I left the house around 3:00 and thought I would be back in time for dinner. I walked in at - wait for it... 11:30.

My list of errands were pretty standard: paper plates, cups, napkins and plastic cutlery; booze for the sangria*; fruit for the sangria and iced tea; and the stuff to make the diaper cake centerpiece. I figured I would hit the craft store, liquor store, baby store and grocery store and be done. Silly me! You see, my problem is that I have these very specific ideas of how I want thing to turn out, so if the stores don't have exactly what I want, I have to add another store to my list to check for it there.

The craft store was disappointing. They had literally no party plates and depressingly few baby accessories that weren't either overly pink or downright tacky. They redeemed themselves slightly by having cute ribbon for the diaper cake, but I still had to add another craft store to my list.

Next I had to drive all the way to the outer suburbs to pick up a hard to find book, then back into town to the baby store. They had diapers and goodies for the diaper cake, but no party supplies. From there, I headed over to the mother ship: Target.

Target has historically had really cute paper goods, but apparently I was at the crappiest Target ever. They had only a few baby shower designs and only one that didn't make me gag outright. The rub here is that Chica loves a pretty cocktail napkin and all of these were ho-hum at best. Finally, I took the best of what they had to offer and headed on to the next destination.

The liquor store was the only stop of the day that was straight forward. Other than the clerk that laughed at me for mispronouncing Cointreau, that part was painless. Then off to another craft store and then another in pursuit of the perfect paper plate. Finally, I crossed town (again) to go to a party store and was able to find cutlery and napkins in an appropriate color.

By now it was 7:30. I called the awesome mom-in-law and she had to kids fed and on the way to the tub. I considered running back to the house to help, but they would have already been in bed by the time I could get there. So I grabbed some dinner (oh, Chipotle, how I adore thee! Diet fail.) and was able to meet up with a friend for coffee. We chatted until Starbuck's kicked us out, only to realize that I still needed fruit and tea from the grocery store.

When I got to the store, citrus was strangely scarce. They had lemons, but no oranges or peaches. I finally found some pitiful pre-bagged Texas oranges and compromised with frozen peaches. The tea, instant I'll admit, was similarly hard to find. Usually, I make the tea with two parts peach ice tea and one part lemon ice tea. No lemon tea. Sigh. Finally I dragged myself home. Whew!

So all I have left to do is to make the sangria and the tea and create an entire diaper cake. Piece of cake!

*Totally Awesome White Zin Sangria

1 750 ml bottle White Zin
1/2 cup peach schnappes
2 tablespoons tripplesec
1 lemon - thinly sliced
1 orange - thinly sliced
1 peach - sliced
10 oz. Club Soda

Mix alcohol and fruit in a large container. Chill for at least half an hour. Add soda just before serving. Serve over frozen peaches instead of ice so that the sangria wouldn't get watered down.