Belated birthday blogging

Three months ago the boys had their birthdays and I didn’t blog about it. Then I didn’t blog about our many other events this summer… our 20^th college reunion, boychoir camp, Camp Kesher, and so on. Ouch! Part of how you know your life is too busy is the lack of time for reflection. But never mind; let’s start again.

Aaron had a classic birthday party at home, with a dozen friends and a cake like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle except purple. (My first experience with fondant. Fun!)

It was a fabulous hot day, so we set them up for water play and just let it rip. 

Play for an hour, cake at the end, what more do you need?

Parents sat in the shade noshing on grownup treats. Six is an age when parents start to assume a birthday party is a dropoff situation, and while part of me appreciates not having to entertain twenty adults in addition to ten kids, another part of me misses the opportunity to hang out. So we make it very clear that adults are welcome to stay at the party, with French cheeses and moscato and such, and cultivate our friendships with those who choose to hang out.

Aaron digs his friends too, and then later he digs the Legos they give him for presents.

For Jordan, this year was all about Magic: The Gathering. We offered him a true MTG birthday party, held at a toy store that hosts MTG tournaments and hosted by a young man who knows what’s what. He was totally thrilled.  Here’s the guy: 

I had no idea what do to for a cake until a geeky work friend said, “You just need to put all five mana symbols,” and showed me what they are and what order they need to go in. Total mystery to me but it came out great.  More fondant.

This is the first time we have had a birthday party outside the house. The host let me know that this would be a two-hour party and that the boys would be completely engrossed in playing the whole time. “Fifteen minutes at the end for cake,” he said, and that’s it. Any additional activities or snacks or whatever would be ignored. This turned out to be exactly true. The leader taught everyone how to play, did a “draft circle” to help them build their decks, and set them into pairs to play. They were obsessed. They wanted no parent intervention of any kind. They didn't even want chips and salsa. The party favors were the decks they had built, which was way better than any goody bag. It was the most relaxing birthday party we’ve ever supervised.