The science fiction birthday party

The guest list included Jedi knights (good and evil), Arthur Dent (don't panic, especially if you have a towel ready), and a wild assortment of aliens. The kids enjoyed aiming Nerf darts at Darth Vader and the Dalek, making aliens to hang on the wall, and whacking a celestial piñata. Somehow, the Dalek cake managed to make it through the night without entirely caving in or collapsing (it was touch and go) and was nearly exterminated by the children. And the Hitchhiker's Guide was right--a towel comes in quite handy, especially with vast quantities of chocolate, punch and children around. Happy birthday, James! (I'm sorry we forgot your present, but it's in the mail!)



P.S. If you found this post looking for instructions for a dalek cake...well, not that ours is much of a role model, but here goes. Stacy baked cake in two bread pans for the body and in a small round ceramic bowl for the head. We set up one loaf of cake straight, and leaned the other against it to make that part of the dalek that kind of sticks out in front. The round piece sat on top. The whole thing was glued together with raspberry jam and loads of chocolate frosting. Most of the shaping of the outside was creative frosting plaster work. We used canned frosting to save work, but homemade would have hardened more and probably been more helpful. (I'd recommend extra-stiff homemade frosting.) Chocolate-covered malt balls are the key ingredient for making the cake look reasonably dalek-like. We also jabbed in bits of licorice for arms, various other candies for the eyepiece and such, and spread around rectangles of chocolate to make the collar/shoulder thing. (I'm not a robot engineer, clearly.) The two bread-shaped cakes did not want to stay vertical, so we also jammed cookies strategically around the sides and underneath. The thing barely escaped disaster--all we had was crossed fingers and a prayer. Plus we wedged it up against the refrigerator for the night.

Easter fun and gluttony

Good stuff from the Easter bunny, loads and loads of chocolate, t-shirts to decorate...we highly recommend Easter with Stacy.

Paris Party: Child labor

After the party, we expected to have meltdowns, whining, exhaustion, etc. But all three kids pitched in and worked like crazy. Their reward was hot cocoa at home--really just an excuse to use the whipped "creme" we'd forgotten to use at the party! In spite of crepes for dinner, cake and ice cream, we let them go crazy with the stuff...they finished the entire can. (OK, I helped a little.)

Paris Party: The arch of (my) triumph

Stacy ventured out with me to locate the box, which sat on the porch for many hours while I pondered how we'd manage turning it into the arch! Finally, I chopped out a hole in the middle and taped on a couple of details, and we put two coats of spray paint on it late Saturday night in the backyard. The paint was a total waste of time and six bucks: No coverage! Aggravating. It was also toxic and stinky and horrible and it made our button-pushing fingers sore! So we desperately found some old tan latex paint in the basement (partially dried up but FREE) and slapped on a coat of that which covered beautifully and dried fast. Sunday morning I used pastel chalks to sketch on some details and we painted the back plain tan. I was so thrilled with how it turned out that I don't know how I'll bear to get rid of it. Which I must, of course--it's huge.

This might be a good time to gush about what an amazing help Stacy was! She isn't pictured because I was too absent-minded and she was behind the camera for most of the party. So full of ideas...she'd call me early in the morning in the month before the party because she'd gotten a new idea for a game or decoration she couldn't wait to share. She arrived on Thursday and slaved away pretty much all weekend. Her only break was a few hours on Saturday! She even stripped the sheets off the guestroom before her 6:30 a.m. return to the bus station with two exhausted children. Everyone should have friends like mine; I don't deserve them, but I'm not complaining.

Paris Party: Art studio

The blank canvases were only about a dollar each, and I already owned way too much paint for someone who is not particularly artistic, so this activity was a bargain. We hung photos from a couple of art calendars on the wall behind the "studio" for inspiration (and when we realized they were a bit too complex to be inspiring to beginners also printed a few examples from the Internet that might seem more "do-able"--Mondrian, Kandinsky, Matisse). The only hitch was that some paintings weren't dry at the end of the party, and carrying them out to the car was quite a challenge. One child asked for a piece of paper so that he could make a checklist for what to put in his painting, and we found it later--he had followed it to a T. Adorable.

Paris Party: Fashion show

Yes, this ran the risk of turning Ethan's fête into a Fairy Princess party, but it was a lot of fun. I know, because one team needed an extra member so I joined in.

Paris Party: Le Tour

The Tour de France relay race went through the room and out in the hall with each kid finishing down the Champs d'Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. (OK, it was a couple of potted plants that happened to already be in the room and an arch I made out of a furniture box from Freecycle.) The "yellow jerseys" were an amazing find. We dashed into the Dollar Store for a couple of things and found Bright. Yellow. T-shirts. One. Dollar. I kid you not. They only had two colors, and one of them was the perfect addition to our relay. Don't you love it when a plan comes together?

Paris Party: French school

We couldn't have had a French party without Claire, who taught us to count to 9 and sent Ethan off on an errand with her brother James to get the cake while she taught the rest of the kids to sing "Happy Birthday" in French. They were really fast learners; she told me later she was quite impressed by their accents.

Paris Party: The food

Even with the World's Greatest Husband, there's no way I could have pulled off this party alone. Thank you, Chef Extraordinaire Becky! (And her also-great husband Clint, who had to leave after getting the crepes started.) I've heard it's the friends you can call at 2 a.m. that matter, but it's really the friends you can call on to make 36 crepes for your Paris Party!

Paris Party: The perfume

Are you a "Master Perfumiére"? (I have no idea if that is spelled right or if it's even a real word. But it sounds like ze French, non?) Nine different scents--some pleasant, some decidedly NOT--awaited the guests in the perfume boutique. This game admittedly leaned toward the girly side, but the garlic was pure nasty. My favorite guesses were seeing eucalyptus identified as "Vaporub" and "car-sickness medicine," and having two kids whose parents work at a company called "Coffey" recognize the scent of "Coffey beans."

Ethan's Paris Party: The Museum

As the kids arrived, they entered through a hallway with an exhibit of little art reproductions. During the meal we hid the 13 artworks in the courtyard and left clues--puzzle pieces telling them the art was hidden in the courtyard. Then partway through the party, we sent Ethan out to get the Mona Lisa (for an "art lesson") so he could discover the theft. The kids assembled the puzzle and ran out in the drizzle to hunt. The highlight for me was a boy opening his eyes very wide and telling me "This is a little bit scary!" (We assured him it was just for fun.)

Ooh-la-la

The boy wants a Paris 9th birthday party, which sounds like tons of fun to me, and which my friend Teri thinks is roughly as girly as a Fairy Princess party. Anyway, would love your ideas for games, etc. And just for fun, take the Ethan Birthday Poll from now until Jan. 19.