Luis's Birthday - Phase II

On Sunday, we had five of Luis's closest friends over and one older sister (a girl, six, who Luis is crazy about). I was excited about the kids decorating gingerbread houses, and had made peace with the disaster that would over come the house.

Juan Fe, Liz and Jules generously and graciously spent much of Saturday constructing the gingerbread houses. It wasn't that hard, but required a sharp knife, icing "glue", patience and an hour between finishing the house and putting on the roof. This part would not have gone over well with 3-year olds.

After house construction was complete, Jules decorated another round of train cakes. This time, we put them on our big cutting board, adding green "grass" and a blue "lake" - both made from coconut - to simulate the look of a train table. This round of cakes was a bit different because one of Luis's friends is allergic to milk, butter and eggs. His mom made a batch of chocolate cakes that were "Elijah-friendly" and we made a batch of yellow cakes. It turns out that we needed two batches of trains to feed all the kids and adults.

Bravo Jules! The trains looked amazing!!

After about 3 weeks of unseasonably cool weather, Sunday turned out to be an unseasonably warm day. At the last minute, we decided to move the party outside. Besides saving my house from a thousand sticky, little-kid hand prints, it also allowed the kids to run off all of their post-nap energy, their ate-too-much-gingerbread-house-decorating-candy, and then their ate-too-much cake energy.

Kids started arriving about 3p and we went straight outside. There was almost enough outdoor toys to keep everyone happy. I say almost because unless I'd had SIX of every toy, it would have been impossible to avoid the occasional scuffle over a toy. I had been a little nervous about entertaining the kids until it was time to decorate, but they did a great job of entertaining themselves.

I had told the parents in advance that we'd be decorating gingerbread houses and the parents were great sports about helping out. We had seven kids, eight parents, three aunts/uncles, and two adult friends - giving us almost a 2:1 adult to kid ratio. Thank goodness! Liz, Jules & JF worked hard to make sure that everyone had the supplies they needed - icing, candies, knives, napkins, etc. Attention spans varied greatly: Luka spent approximately 3 1/2 minutes on his house before going back to playing, while Logan put in close to 45 minutes. Luis didn't spend much time at all decorating, but was fastidious about eating as much icing as he could get into his mouth (which was a lot). As kids finished (or lost interest), they peeled off from the table and went back to running around the backyard. (It was at this moment that I was particularly glad that we were outside and not in the house!)

Thomas decorates. Luis eats. Caleb decorates. Elijah decorates (with help from his mom). Logan decorates. Which of these is not like the other?

Next was cake time. The train cakes were a HUGE success with the kids. In fact, each of them made sure to note which train he wanted by touching it. Repeatedly. In an effort to make sure Elijah felt part of the crowd (in terms of being able to eat the same cake as the other kids - something which never happens for him), I put the candles in one of the chocolate trains. The plan worked, and almost backfired. Almost all of the kids wanted chocolate trains.

It's hard to get six 3-year old boys in a single shot. Here is 5 of them

The one problem we had was that it was pretty windy: the three tiny candles we had wouldn't stay lit. Tim, our next door neighbor was sweet enough to hold something to block the wind so that Luis could fully enjoy blowing out the candles. And he did enjoy it!

After cake, it was time for more running around. One of the reasons we liked this house the first time we saw it was because of the big back yard. It was perfect for this party. And the fort that Diego and I built almost a year ago was a big hit. Kids were on the glider, the swings, and the slide, up in the fort and down in the sandbox almost all afternoon.

I imagine this picture being dug up and tagged on some one's Facebook account in 25 more years (or whatever thing has replaced Facebook).

Elijah, Luis, Alexandra, Logan and Thomas

It didn't surprise me that Luis cried at his party. It was a bit overwhelming - and required a whole lot of sharing of toys. Twice, he and Diego had a few quiet moments together so Luis could collect himself before rejoining the festivities.

In the end, the party was a great success. Kids had fun. Adults had fun. All of the cake was eaten. No blood was shed. And there was constant laughter from everyone. In the months leading up to Luis's birthday, I had been really nervous about what to do for his party. Though the sources were different, it wasn't too unlike how I felt about helping Luis with a Halloween costume: I both wanted it to be just right and I didn't want it to be my fault if it wasn't. When it was all said and done, I had this really wonderful feeling that I did, in fact, 'get it right'; that Luis had a great time, enjoyed his friends, and felt special (on his special day). I doubt that he'll actually remember this day, but I hope that I never forget.

Luis enjoys his gingerbread house. After this, no one else really wanted any.