Party Time

Jacob's birthday was on a Saturday this year, so we actually had his party on his birthday. We only invited family to keep the party small, but it was still too many people for our little apartment, so Brent's parents were incredibly kind to us and allowed us to have the party at their house. I have to tell you...having a party at someone else's house is not an easy thing. Making everything at home, transporting it to the party, trying to make sure that nothing is forgotten...the list goes on. We were very grateful that they allowed us to have the party at their house, though...we were much more comfortable than we would have been at our house.

I started working on the party on Thursday. I baked the cake and let it cool, planning to ice and decorate it the next day during naptimes. Everything started out fine on Friday...until the whipped icing I bought (because I think it tastes SOOOO much better than buttercream) just would not form stiff peaks. So I finally iced the cake and then started adding powdered sugar to the icing to try to thicken it up. That was a huge mistake. Rather than thickening, it just melted into a gooey mess. Ugh.

And I didn't have enough powdered sugar to make buttercream. So off to Brookshire's I went as soon as Jacob woke up from his morning nap. Of course, he woke up late that day...so it was lunchtime as we were going to the store. Yup...that is NOT a good time to be going to the grocery store with young children! We got back home, I fed us all and put the kids down for their nap. Only Samantha did not cooperate with napping, or even being quiet at all. So NOTHING was done during their nap.

After Brent got home from work, I was able to start working on the cake again while he fed and entertained the kids. I opened a stick of shortening...and it smelled horrible. The next one was the same. I was groaning, thinking that I was going to have to go to the store again and I was not happy about it. I planned ahead so that I would not be staying up late the night before trying to get things done...but it was happening anyway. I did however have one unopened package of shortening sticks that were not butter flavored...and I was so excited when I opened it and they smelled just fine. No trip to the store after all. Hooray!

I finally got the cake decorated, finishing long after the kids were already in bed, then decorated the cookies, took pictures of the cake and went to bed myself. On Saturday morning, I got up to start getting things together and putting them in the van. I glanced at the cake and noticed that the border on the top edge and the words on the side had started falling down. I. WAS. NOT. HAPPY. Apparently the whipped icing is not capable of holding the weight of the buttercream up for an extended period of time. I sort of smooshed it back up, but it still looked like it was falling. I was glad that I took pictures the night before, but still...I wanted it to look right for his party. Well, as right as I was able to get it in the first place, at least. Oh, well, we loaded up the van and headed off to put on a party with our family.


Dave and Staci and their kids came on Friday night. My parents, Steven and Benjamin were supposed to come Friday night as well, but as they were leaving town, they had problems with the lights on the car and they said that they would come in the morning instead.


We called my family after we got to Brent's parents house to see what time they would be arriving, and found out that they had not left yet. You see, it turned out to be a very good thing that they had van problems the night before, because my dad had to go to the ER later Friday night and he ended up being admitted to the hospital in the wee hours of Saturday morning. They did manage to get everything under control and they told us that as soon as the doctor came by and signed the discharge papers, they would be on the road again to come see us. Dave and Staci had to get back to CS for Emma's dance recital that afternoon, so we couldn't just completely put the party on hold, though. We went ahead with the party and I saved a couple of presents for Jacob to open with my family and we decided that we would just do cake again that evening.



So Jacob had TWO birthday parties for his 1st birthday. I know that isn't all that unusual, but I don't think that there are generally 2 parties in the same day!



Jacob wasn't all that interested in opening his presents, he decided that he would rather play with ribbons and tissue paper. But his big sister could hardly stay away and opened his presents for him when he wasn't moving as fast as she would like.



Jacob did not blow out the candle on his cake...he has no clue about that at all...although I have tried to teach him. He did however tear into his cake right away. There was nothing tentative at all, and he gobbled it all down. Of course there is no surprise in that, seeing as how this is the kid who truly loves to eat.





All in all, we had a wonderful day and had fun at the party...even though our time with my family was cut so short. And our sweet little boy is such an adorable one year old! :)