Birthday Party

Benjamin asked to have an "Arctic" theme for his birthday party. I will admit, that his request took me a little off-guard. But he suggested a couple of games, Todd came up with another, and I managed to get Heather the Awesome to do a cake for us. Behold, the igloo cake:

Other than the adventure of procuring the nasty Sno-balls in the poorly lit, un-hygenic, gas station convenience stores, it was a pretty stress free birthday party. 

When the kids arrived, they ran around like wild animals with weapons. Really. It was complete and total mayhem. I don't know why it still surprises me when this happens. But it does.

After a few minutes I made everyone drop their weapons and head upstairs to make a fish out of construction paper for our first game of "Pin the fish in the Polar Bear's mouth or fiercly clawed hand.". That was Benjamin's idea. Todd drew the polar bear. Because he's good like that. I mentioned to him last night that while I hadn't put it on my list of qualities to seek in a spouse, that clearly "Must know how to draw a life size polar bear for children's game" should have been on the list and, boy-howdy, did I luck out!

That delightful game was followed by "seal" races. The kids seperated into teams and we tied their arms and legs up. Then they had to lay on their bellies and flop across the floor, touch their noses to the wall, and turn around and come back so the next person could go.

It. Was. Fabulous.

Seriously, you should all do this with your kids at home some time just for fun! Or your spouse, siblings, or your co-workers. Nothing says "morale boost" like flailing across a room on your belly. You can't not laugh. I promise.

The last game was a dogsled race. No dogs were harmed because we used kids instead. Two kids grabbed the front of a sleeping bag, another one jumped on top of the sleeping bag to hold on and the teams raced one another across the basement. Also, impossible to do without much mayhem.

Todd and I were thoroughly exhuasted at that point and ready to sit down and put our feet up. But alas, we'd only used up one of the two hours. So, we had cake and ice cream, and then headed over to the school playground and then back for presents opening.

It was so windy outside for cake that Benjamin never actually got to blow out his candle.  The wind did it for him eight times.  (We redid it the next day in the dining room.)

I love presents. Presents mean that my kids get the things they actually want except I don't have to pay for them, so instead I can give Benjamin the gift of a two day dinosaur dig in Wyoming this summer. Let's be honest, if he'd only gotten that, he would have regarded this birthday with certain amounts of disappointment. Instead his friends showered him with small and large plastic things that made him squeal with joy and delight. Aren't friends great?