Balloons, Chaos and... Muffcakes?

Has anyone else ever wondered why we, as mothers, put ourselves through so much stress just to put on a 'show' for our child? The party is no longer for the child, rather a challenge for the mother to get the best cake in town, serve the most high-quality food and make sure there is enough to do so that the chlidren attending aren't so bored that they are attempting to use you as the ransom figure in a game of cops and robbers.

Ryan turned four this past week and we had some festivities. We took him to Applebee's for his birthday. He was chuffed when they came out to sing to him. I made cupcakes for him to take to his pre-school and he was all sorts of excited! The morning of his birthday he saw me frosting the cupcakes and asked "momma, are those muffcakes for me to take to Miss Diane's?" I replied, "Yes, buddy, these cupcakes are for you to take to your friends at school for your birthday." He corrected me. "No, mom! They're muffcakes." Okay, guess he told me!

We had a party on Sunday. My boss, Summer, is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She was determined to let Ryan have the 'best birthday ever,' and took him and Cayden to Chuck E Cheese's Sunday afternoon. After a few hours of playing, we packed up and headed home so I could finish the last minute preparations for the party that night. We had planned to have the party at a park. It's June. Weather should be immaculate and shouldn't cause a problem, right? WRONG. The party would have been held under a pavillion, so if there was rain that wouldn't be a huge issue. The problem was the wind! The wind came and picked up almost immediately after I started setting up for the party. The balloons I had gotten that afternoon were tied to the table and came loose. I look over and there are 13 balloons stranded in a tree. My brother, Josh, was ever so kind to go and retrieve them for me. Anyway, back to my boss. She noticed the wind and everyone standing around wishing they had a warm place to go and offered her house to hold the party. We had 20 people attending this party and she offers her house like it's no big deal! We accept, sheepishly, and pack up and follow her and her husband to their house. Their house is beautiful. The kind of home I intend to own one day. The kind of home I was afraid to stick tape to the walls in, because i was afraid of damaging something. Summer and her husband opened their home to us all and we had a great night. Ryan got lots of presents and thoroughly enjoyed himself. I guess all the fretting and stressing paid off in the end. I leave you with a picture of my most recent masterpiece:

Lightning McQueen.

p.s. Please disregard the horrible focus on the picture, I took this with my phone camera and forgot to take one with my 'real' camera. More pictures of the birthday party and birthday boy to come later! Stay tuned.