It Really Was An Accident Waiting To Happen...

12 kids. Two 8 year olds, and the rest ranging between 5 and 6. Throw a 3 year old into the mix. Add astonishing amounts of hyperactivity, 5 pin glow-bowling, blaring music, and general uncoordination, and you've got Keegan's 6th birthday party.

Just getting them organized was a nightmare. Shoes, getting them to decide if they want peach juice, apple juice, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Orange Crush or 7-Up. And then giving them more choices in the arena of chips: plain, salt and vinegar, nacho, ketchup, BBQ, cheesies or sour cream and onion.

Then trying to shift them all into three lanes for bowling. This was more difficult than you might think, especially because I wasn't able to put names to half of the faces.

And when you see them actually bowl...yipes! Three kids with crushed fingers because they refused to listen to the 500000000000 times I told them not to put their hands near the ball return. One kid with a bruised foot from when another kid dropped his ball. Of course, this wouldn't have happened either if they had listened when I told them 500000000000000 times to sit down on the bench when it wasn't their turn to bowl. And my personal favourite: the kid who got a rapidly speeding ball to the crotch when he thought it was a good idea (despite my 5000000000000000000000000 warnings NOT to) to straddle the ball return. It took one hour to get through 6 frames of bowling.

Food! Hotdogs. 80% of the kids only ate the wiener. Another 10% took one bite and said they were full. The other 10% said that there was no way they were eating that, or drinking that. (Hmmm....got some sensory issues going on. Okay, I get it).

Then there was the creepy Yoda Cake. (Forgive me as I sidebar here to tell the story of the cake. Keegan had asked for a Yoda cake for his party. I had visions of gateau grandeur. Instead, I ended up with a Yoda head on a platter, whose facial attachments and ears were too heavy for the cake and despite having a box of toothpicks inserted throughout the cake, continued to fall off. (That's a lawsuit waiting to happen, actually...). I asked Keegan what he thought, and he said it was really creepy and it would scare all of his friends. "But thanks for trying Mommy."
So, cake part two. I cut the head in half so I had two half-spheres of cake. Made one into the head, the other into chest and shoulders and made up a jacket to lay on top. Trimmed down the protruding eyes and nose, and reassembled. Keegan's reaction was non-committal. At this point, I thought, screw it! Why am I stressing out for a bunch of kindergardeners?)

Ok, so I bring out the cake, the children were delighted (to my satisfaction, they all knew it was supposed to be Yoda) and Keegan blows out the candle. I then tell them I am going to cut the cake. Then, and I kid you not, they en masse started chanting, "KILL YODA! KILL YODA! KILL YODA!" Little barbarians, every single one of them.

After it was all over, and we were taking the loot to the car, I had that bizzare ringing deafness, akin to post-concert experiences.

Don't get me wrong, over all the party went well, the kids had a blast, and other than the myriad of bowling ball related injuries, there were no tears or tantrums. But I for one, would recommend that bowling parties be saved for those 7 and up. Maybe 8. Make it an even 10. And only invite 2 friends.

PS. I really want to hunt down and maim the parent who invented loot bags. I took a page out of my friend Christy's book, and decided to give the kids Chapter's gift cards instead of crappy dollar store toys that would break before they even got home. As I was handing these out, tucked into thank you cards, I kept hearing, "This is it? This is the loot?" Sigh. You just can't win. One month of rest until Phoenix's birthday party. And I'm going to need it.

Happy Easter!!!

This year's Easter cake collection includes mini-cupcakes of bunnies and chicks...

Wishing everyone a fun and happy Easter!

Strong Advocate For Home Schooling

I have become a strong advocate for home schooling. Why? Because at least if your children are confined to their own homes all day, they won't be bringing home a new virus every 3 seconds.

Yes, Keegs and Ty are sick. Again. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge.

Ty has some bronchial infection that makes him wheeze like a 10 pack a day smoker. He is on drugs and a puffer.

Keegs has major lung butter and a chest infection so he's on antibiotics too.

Took Keegs to the dr regarding his nosebleeds and general lack of good health on Thursday afternoon. Dr recommended extensive blood tests. He thinks he may be anaemic, as I posted before with the most benign of my suspicions. So they took 5 vials of blood out of him; not like he has much to spare these days. He was great. Not a peep out of him, not even a flinch. The lab techs were all "Oh, what courage! What a good boy you are!" And Keegs looks at them and says, "Yes. I know. I am brave." He's too cute.

So now we wait for some results, which will be somewhat delayed due to the Easter holiday and all, so look for an update on Tues or Wednesday.

Happy Birthday yesterday to my nephew Lucas, who is 12 years old! Enjoy your last preteen year ( or is it tween, now?)

Busy day tomorrow. Mark was in Ottawa all week, so I am way behind on my Easter errands. I have to get a million things done tomorrow including taking the boys for haircuts (although I think I may leave Ty's a bit longer in the front to cover his black eye (up close and personal with the kitchen stool) and the chunk that is missing from his forehead (faceplant from the stairs onto a Transformer toy). The kid is Evil Kneivel, I swear. No fear. Keep your fingers crossed that he survives each day.

Will post in the next few days with my Easter "mini" cakes...

For A Long Month, It Went Fast

At first, I thought March was going to last forever. And now, here it is, April already. Now is the busy time countdown in our household. For me, it is a busy cake making season. Lots of birthdays here and among friends and family, plus Easter treats to make. We also have EarthJam 2007 coming up, and Mark's band has a set list with 10 new songs to learn, so Mark is in the studio all the time in preparation for the show. Then in May, it's FSRT duck race season. So by the beginning of June, stress levels begin to abate, right? No, because there are more birthdays and parties and preschool graduation and the end of grade one...so really, I'm pretty much screwed until summer.

This week, Phoenix starts his after-school reading tutoring, twice a week. Keegs has his visit with the dr regarding his explosive nose hemorrages (8 last week, one this week so far, but hey, it's only Sunday!). Good Friday we are all off, of course. Saturday is a baking day. Sunday is Easter at Mark's mom's cousin's house (Zosia). Monday is another day off for most; Keegs goes back to school.

I have spent the day filling out forms, mostly disclosure agreements to release info regarding Keegan's psych assessment to various doctors, schools etc. Also filled out forms for summer camp for Phoenix. I am sending him to two, week-long day camps in July and August to break up his summer. He's going with his friend Hannah, so he should have a good time. Keegs we are keeping at the daycare through the summer to keep him in routine. It will be good, because it is at the main centre, and will be all kids in his age group, all going into SK. We ended up keeping the same subsidy level, so costs will be managable, and his transportation will still be covered. And in the off days? Well, play dates, and the weekly trip to the Farmer's Market to pick up fresh fruits and veggies, and to visit Grandpa who works there as well.

I have spent the weekend a: doing laundry, b: baking cakes, c: caring for fever-ridden child, d: losing 8 bids on E-Bay, e: becoming addicted to Facebook, f: all of the above. (The answer is F).

Phoenix came down with a fever on Saturday morning. Weird. No other symptoms, no stomach ache, no sore throat or cough, ear pain, nothing. Just a fever hovering around the 103 F mark. Which meant that we had to miss out on my nephew's birthday party (made him a guitar cake) and going glow-in-the-dark bowling. I did laundry and watched endless episodes of Justice League instead. He is okay today. Mark took the kids to church and they came home proudly displaying the crosses they had made with palm. (Palm Sunday craft...). I stayed home with Ty, who refused to nap and frosted my flakes. Refused to nap in the afternoon too. Was quite pissy by bedtime, let me tell you.

Anyway, it's approaching 11:00, I'm blind from all of the time spent on the computer this weekend, so I'm going to head out. Will update on Thursday with Keegs dr news.

Rock 'n' Roll!

Electric guitar cake that I made on Friday...next up...well, something Easter-ish.

Ooh, Baby!

Cake I made this weekend for a baby shower...'tis the season for cakes. Got 4 orders this week! Stay tuned for next week's feature: the electric guitar.