A Complete Cake Fail and A Pokemon Party

Well, it was bound to happen, I had a cake fall completely apart. After multiple poor choices, the planned cake was a total bomb and I had to salvage the parts that weren't a complete loss and call it good because by that time, I had less than an hour until the party would start. And even then, I realized I got the Pokeball wrong in a few places. It was just horribly, horribly wrong. I didn't plan it well enough and didn't prepare early enough, and so this is what you get. Sad, isn't it? But, at least it tasted good!

Anyway, let's start with 7am!

Cruise woke in the morning to Miles crying, and immediately said, "It's my birthday! I wonder what surprises they have for me!" Ha ha! This kid LOVES a good surprise. Dave and I put up a banner and some balloons the night before, as well as had his presents wrapped and sitting on the table for him to find.

So of course he had to open his presents immediately. We got him a Pokeball belt set and an Inventions book and kit. Pokemon and science: his two favorite things these days.

I've been putting together Cruise's Halloween costume (Ash from Pokemon) and so he grabbed everything he has so far and he and Jett played Pokemon for about an hour.

My mom came and picked Cruise & Jett up and took them to breakfast at Denny's. Then they went to the Boy Scouts office and she got Cruise his Boy Scout stuff! He is so excited to start next week! Then off they went to the toy store where Jett got his own Pokeball, and then to lunch at Wendy's. They had a blast! Grandma gave Cruise his present from she and Papa Greer: a 1998 Pokedex! (I told you he loves eBay). He was so excited!

Cruise came home and a package showed up from Grandma & Grandpa Ybarra! They sent him a Blast Pad, which is like a stomp rocket only better! He and Jett had a lot of fun playing with it together!

The party started at 4:30pm, after I endured the cake fail and cried like a baby in the kitchen. Luckily I was able pull out of it and remember my goal is for Cruise to have a good birthday, and so far he was all smiles. Last minute another thing went wrong, two of the four friends he invited couldn't make it. So his two friends, Tex and Claire, showed up and we played Twister first.

Next we played pin the tail on the Pikachu, which apparently I have no pictures of, but they loved it.

Then we did a Pokeball hunt. Earlier in the week I took all our Easter eggs and painted them red and white, and then Dave & I spent an hour drawing black bands around each one so they would look like Pokeballs. Then I ordered 48 1-inch Pokemons from Amazon for really cheap and filled the eggs with them. The boys' babysitter, Rani, and her boyfriend came for the party and hid all the eggs while the boys were playing the other games.

After all the balls were found, we had pizza! 

And then, the underwhelming cake:

Then they pulled out their Pokemon and played for a little while.

Then...presents!

Claire gave Cruise a slime science kit. She said, "Because we had so much fun playing science last time I came here!"

 Tex gave Cruise his very first set of Pokemon cards! He was so excited!!!

 And Rani and Bryce got Cruise another Pokeball and more Pokemons!

The kids each got a gift bag with a giant slappy hand, two Pokemon pencils, a pencil eraser, a nose pencil sharpener, Laffy Taffy, and a Pokemon glow stick. 

Rani & Bryce stayed afterwards and let Dave and I go on a date. When I kissed Cruise good-bye, I asked him if he had a good birthday and he said, "Oh yes!" 

My work here is done.

Last Game!

Summer baseball is finally done! It was awesome, fun, stressful, and irritatingly demanding. But it seems like most of the kids loved it.  So that's what matters.

We had to move the game to a different park because our field was overrun by footballers. So for our last game, one of the moms reserved their neighborhood park for that evening. I also had everyone bring a treat to share and I provided WAY too much soda than I should have. And I also arranged for Rowly, one of the mascots from the OWLZ, to come and play with the kids. 

The day had been going awesome; the weather was not too hot and a little overcast. I showed up a little early to the park to set up and a huge windstorm starts and doesn't let up the entire time. In fact, it got worse as the party went on. But the kids all had fun playing with Rowly, catching balls and taking pictures. We didn't get to really play a game since the wind was just too crazy, but I don't think the kids minded. Jett was really irritated by the wind and wouldn't get out of the car to take pictures with Rowly. Finally he came out in time for a big group picture, but of course he threw a fit afterwards that he didn't get a one-on-one pic with the mascot. Miles kept a safe distance from Rowly and made BFFs with my friend Aimee, one of the moms. He stuck with her while I took pictures and helped everyone.

Rowly eating my face. 

For the parents who wanted them, I ordered little medals for the kids. Jett felt better once he got his medal after the party. I have to say I'm relieved to be done with it and a little hesitant to do it again next year. Still trying to figure that out.