And a Week to Recover...

Last weekend, we finally celebrated ZBoy's 9th birthday - with a party full of screaming, wet kids. I have a great aversion to plunking down a lot of money for a birthday cake - especially when I can make one at home that he'll be happy with. Ta-da!!! The StarWars Hoth Battle Birthday cake! We already had the figures... just needed to make the cake and add the candle.

The pool was finally ready, thanks to Darling Man's TWO WEEKS' worth of efforts. The day was warm enough and the water only just warm enough for the kids to jump in and have great raging water battles. These included not only water guns, but water balloons as well.

I spent all day Friday cleaning house and baking the cake. Darling Man took his turn cooking on the grill, turning out delicious hamburgerse and hotdogs enough to satisfy every man, woman, and child at this shindig.

Saturday morning, he took Kida for a long bike ride so she'd be relatively calm with all the strange people around. I think it worked.

And of course, there were presents - even though I wrote to all the parents and said not to bring them. I guess some things are just ingrained. One of the things ZBoy got was one of those Transformer helmets that changes your voice. We've all taken turns with it, telling jokes, reading books and singing the Oscar Mayer Hotdog song.

After everyone left, we finally found the Happy Birthday masks. ZBoy and his grandmother Buba modeled the masks and the hats for us.

Z said it was the best party ever. He had two of his friends spend the night, and they were all so worn out that silence descended before 10pm ever came.

I am glad, however, that it will be another year before we do another party!