Happy Ending to Kind of Bummer of a Week

This last week was kind of a bummer. If it had been just about any other year, I would have been with all my in-laws skiing Winter Park, CO. But noooooo. My 'hotshot' brother-n-law had to go move to Tchad, Africa--the fourth most failed nation on the globe--(with his pregnant wife and 2 yr. old son) to write witty blog post and be a missionary (http://www.missionarydoctors.blogspot.com/)! (I guess the fact that the my wife and boys don't get Spring Break for anther two weeks also may have contributed a little as well.)

But really, that is not what bummed me out so badly. I really do love my wife's brother, he definately is one of my top-3 favorite brother-n-laws. What really bummed me out most was that for eight years, my wife and I have been able to avoid having to throw a birthday party for our oldest son who has, with one exception, celebrated every birthday in Colorado with my in-laws. It probably wouldn't have been an issue, if it wasn't for super social son #2 goating his big brother into trying to have as large a party as possible.

Having resigned to the inevidable evil that is a birthday party, we set out to secure a two hour session at the local bowling alley with pizza and soda for a small gathering of 5 boys. Then our eldest son shared his list of intended invitees for his birthday party including pre-k students through junior highers, vertually the entire school--including his teacher. I suppose the one kind of positive element here is that he didn't want to do anything for his birthday but to play a big game of football. Did I mention this discussion took place the Thursday before his birthday? After confirming that he understood to have more people and have them at the house meant that the entire place needed to be cleaned better than it had even been before--probably on Sunday morning, I agreed to increase the invite list.

Truth be told, once the decision was finally made, I started to get a little excite--about how much cheaper it will be to play football rather than a 'pay for party'--and potentional "cakes" ideas. When I was about the same age as my oldest son, I too was a huge football fan and my mom made me the coolest football field cake frosted with green coconut to look like grass. But I was challenged by not being able to find small football figures anywhere and was using cupcakes. The challenge of not being able to recreate my mother's master piece cake, inspired me to create my own master piece--an "wreath cookie" cake (similar to a rice crispy treat, but made with corn flakes). The kids may not have been impressed, but I sure was!

My biggest fear was the devistation that my son was going to have when the reality that "the big kids" don't want to hang out at a nine-year-olds birthday party. My secondary worry was the weekend weather forecast that was calling for a high of 51 degrees (albeit acceptable football weather) and likelihood of rain most of the weekend.

Well, Sunday morning came and we only had one phone confirmation--which the birthday boy took, but couldn't remember who it was or how many people it might have been confirming would be coming. (my wife had gotten verbal confirmation from several of the parents of the most necessary friends.) I remembered the 7th birthday party of my niece & nephew and the awesome football jersey "my son" (than 3 yrs. old) made along with all the other party attenders. So I rushed out to Walmart to pick up some tee-shirts to be able to do the same thing, but forgot to ask my wife how many kids we were expecting or what sizes they were likely to be...medium should be average.

I returned just in time for the 2 year old to go down for a nap as kids started to arrive--what idiot would schedule a birthday party during little brother's nap time? I plead the 5th. First kid there was one of the "big kids" from the upper grades classroom. As was the second and third--technically, they were choosing to join this birthday party with their brother & sister who are in my boys class instead of the kindergarten party their littlest sister was going to at the same time(yes, 5 siblings and their mother is pregnant with twins!). When all arrived we had 10 boys and 2 girls. After everyone had made a "jerseys" we headed down to "the field" for what turned into an hour fifteen minute game, where the birthday boys smaller team ended up winning 28-14 on the strength of 3 turnovers. The game was cut short after the third near concussion and the overwhelming desire for pizza.

Fun was had by all (ok, most), a 2 hour party turned into 4 plus and despite requesting no gifts the birthday boy cleaned up (that is very figurative--Mr. Mom had to Clean Up!). Oh, and did I forget to mention that the rainy, 51 degree day turned out to be a sunny 70 degrees?