Gimme 5

So, I've seen some perfectly splendid birthday parties out there. Robots dancing with pirates, on a cake, made by rubbing two sticks together, girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, brown paper packages tied up with string, these are just some of the ideas swirling in my head over the past year as I anticipated the big 5th birthday. So how did the magical day play out?

our Friends Forever from San Diego had decided on a trip to Whistler. How could we not meet them there, since they were making the plane ride with the whole family? We, the parents, thought, "that will be the perfect birthday for the boys fun in the snow, with friends, great." Skip the hoopla, invitations, cake, theme party, etc. we'll just have a fun day...

Cut to: we are in Whistler, have had a really great time and it is the night before the birthday/day we drive home. The boys realize it is their birthday...a COMPLETE meltdown...
"We are going to be driving in the car on our birthday? What about: party, cake, blow out the candles and presents?..."

"um, oh, um," we realize we didn't have a very good plan, for the birthday part, after all. Not that we hadn't talked about a party. In my defense, they had never seemed overly enthused. I took it as, "we don't really need a party." Really it was,"we assume there will be a party and we will be happy with whatever kind it is, as long as it is a real party (blow out candles on a cake and unwrap something)."

So the best we came up with is, "Birthday party day is not tomorrow, it is Saturday, of course that's when we have cake and presents." It did dry the tears and we kept the real birthday of driving in the car on the DL.

So after some scrambling, here is what birthday party day looked like...

As they slept, we decorated their room in streamers, and a sign, heaped as many balloons on their floor as we could blow-up during a TIVOed Desperate Housewives with out passing out.

And the cake? Do I have to mention it? Yes. They are sharing the cake, which is something I never wanted for my twins. I always wanted them to feel special and individual on their birthday, even though they shared the date. The best part of the cake was either that it said Superbowl (hey at the last minute, I was just glad they both liked the same one) or that E blew out some of C's candles, so we had a 're-light' so he could blow-out his own side.

At the end of the day, literally, we all had got what we wanted most. They had a "PARTY" and we had/still have, healthy, happy, much loved, 5 year olds.