Thought I Was Through

By the time last Friday rolled around, I figured I was through with all the birthday preparations, but no such luck. We had a series of miscommunications that led to one more grueling day of baking and preparation. We had spent the previous day celebrating A’s birthday with a special birthday breakfast followed by presents, skiing, a Waldorf Mardi Gras celebration, then a party, where as I think I mentioned, A got up and performed and did a stand up job. There were two parts of the celebration left, Friday’s series of activities, and a sleepover on Saturday.

Now A at one time mentioned having a party at home, but one of the complications was that her friends are all over the map. She has buddies that are hip school kids, ones that are smart and cerebral academic types, and artsy types that like to sing and perform. Some are painfully shy, and others are quirky and a little out there. I may very well be making excuses here, but it would have challenging to get them together in one room and to integrate them.

Since we’d already had our big birthday bash, Friday was essentially gravy, so there was less pressure, or so I thought. We had the idea of rather than bringing the party home, we would bring the party to her activities. The idea was to bake dozens of cupcakes and bring them to pottery, play rehearsal, and library story hour. We could thus celebrate with all of her individualistic friends in a comfortable setting, but it would require a little legwork by, you guessed it, yours truly.

The previous two days we furiously baked cakes, cupcakes, bread, cookies, and brownies. It was a bit much, and I have to confess to burning out a little. Things got a little dramatic, as well, with her rehearsal. I had asked a few days earlier how many kids were in her theater class, but never got a reply. On the day of the rehearsal, I found out there were 30 kids, and we only had 24 cupcakes. I had to back out and tell the teacher that we didn’t have enough and couldn’t just give them to some of the kids and not others.

Well, embracing the idea that when in doubt, just go for it, we hatched up a plan. Friday has two rehearsals, one in the late morning, and one about an hour and a half later. Because it’s school, it’s easy enough for the kids to just jet over to the rehearsal, but for us it’s a little more of a challenge.

Anyway, we were short on cupcakes, and I at first told JB it wasn’t going to work, but on the way home, I broached the idea with the kids that we could go home, whip up some cupcakes, bake them and frost them, all in the hour in-between rehearsals. I wavered back and forth on this one, when N chimed in and said, “It’s better to regret what you have done than what you haven’t done.” Wow, give that boy a high-five.

So, feeling inspired, we got home, I made the kids lunch and started making cupcakes. I figured I only needed a dozen, so one tray would do us. I told the kids that dad was going to be stressed out in the next hour and not to bother him, and they were more than happy to oblige. We got the cupcakes into the oven and while they were cooling, whipped up the frosting.

I then proceeded to put the frosting on and the kids would take them and decorate them with sprinkles and colored sugar. It was an amazing site to behold, and the kids did a brilliant job. We finished with about ten minutes to spare and loaded up the car and headed over to the school. After rehearsal, it was off to library story hour, and then home for a break.

In the end, we went for it and were happy we did, but it wasn’t easy. Perhaps as a result of all the excitement, A came down with a cold and couldn’t fulfill the final part of her celebration, the sleepover, but that’s okay. It was a great birthday celebration, and there’s always next weekend.

Until then, thanks for reading.