It's just unfortunate he didn't attend

My little man turned 6 earlier this month.  I love the boy he is becoming.  I wish he played a little less Minecraft, but appreciate his passion.  I love to see his face light up when he performs.  He has such a huge heart.  It makes me happy when I see it full of kindness, and hurts me deeply when I can tell that it has been hurt.  He is a wonderful storyteller with an incredible imagination.  He is my buddy.  

 On the big day, Miss A and I met him at lunch and brought his classmates birthday doughnuts.  If you ever want to feel like a superstar, just enter an elementary school cafeteria with a doughnut box.  His party was planned for the following Saturday.  And when I say it was planned, I mean this kid had been planning his party since this summer.  After we moved to Houston I knew he felt like someone was his friend because he would invite them to his birthday party.  The invite list accumulated names for just about 6 months.  When the day came to actually send out invitations I tried to persuade E to invite only a few friends but he insisted the party be "crowded"...and crowded it was. 

E's original vision for his celebration was a huge Christmas party.  I don't mean a party for Christmas, but a Christmas party in February.  For fear that people would realize think we were a little crazy, I got him to go with a snow theme instead.  I realize the theme may not sound fun to everyone around the country that got dumped on with extreme winter weather that week, but it was kind of nice to pretend to have winter here.  We had penguins, snowmen, "snow" falling in the courtyard and a sprinkle of "snow" all over the lawn.  I prepared penguin bowling, snow-themed crafts, shaving cream Pictionary, and other games.  In the end, the kids just wanted to slip and slide in the snow while the parents munched on snow themed treats--cream cheese stuffed olive penguins, white cheese balls, white queso, snowman quesadillas, snowcaps, snowflake cookies, arctic circle powdered sugared doughnuts, snowman parts (carrot noses, pretzel arms, oreo buttons, pepperoni eyes, Twizzlers scarfs, etc.), blue iceberg jello, with arctic punch and glacial water to wash it down. 
 

 My sister gave me the idea to create shirts for the guests using contact paper and bleach to make a "print".  Thanks to my mom's help they actually got finished in time for the party.  It's a good thing I had a fresh shirt to offer the kids as they left because the kids were all covered in muddy fake snow yuck.

What I was most happy about was for the first time ever, E finally had a completed cake for his party.  Now that I think about it, his actual original idea for the party was to have people eat chocolate cake. It definitely would have been a shame if I'd forgotten to include that. Once we settled on a snow theme he requested "Pingu ice fishing catching the number 6", and despite staying up all night finishing a wedding cake, I managed to pull together his requested design by some minor miracle just in time for the start of the party.  

 The party was just about to begin as our guest of honor arrived after spending the night at Jojo's house.  Unfortunately, he had a fever and just wanted to go to bed.  It was so sad. His friends kept asking where he was, but every time I went in to check on him, he just asked to keep resting.  The party carried on without him and he did come out just long enough for us to sing to him.  Turns out the poor kid had strep throat... and I deserve mother of the year for waiting three days before finally figuring that out.

Once he was feeling better I asked him is he was sad that he missed his party or if he was happy that his friends had such a good time.  He said he was a little sad, but was glad they had fun.  Then he added, "I wasn't too sad because I still got presents."  I guess it wasn't a complete loss for him.  What I enjoyed most was both the kids getting so excited about everything we did to plan it.  It's always a little cringe-worthy to see some of your kids pick up your vices, but it is amazing when your passions rub off on them.  It makes me look forward to the next celebration here in the Melton pot.

On an unrealated note, this day was my first full blown panic attack where I had to breathe into a bag and everything.  On top of throwing this party, I agreed to make a wedding cake for a friend

as well as a cake for her nephew's Ethan's court of honor. 
I may need to work on saying "no".