Would you like fries with your cake?

Here's Alex's birthday cake. The burger layer is actually brownie. Disregard the messy crumbs on the edge. Those are gone now. Sarah had this same cake at about the same age, maybe a year or two older. It's pretty popular and easy to make. Those are real sesame seeds on top and the "condiments" are starburst and gumdrops, rolled thin and shaped to resemble lettuce, onion, pickle and cheese. Can you say SUGAR HIGH?

Happy Birthday,Dude!

Happy 11th Birthday Alex. It's so hard to believe that he's that old. My baby is now almost as tall as me. I know that isn't saying much, but still. He looks me in the eye and wears the same shoe size and he's just all arms and legs anymore. He is patiently waiting for his birthday gift from me. He's getting a hamster. He has the cage all set up and we made letters on the cricut to spell "her" name out on the side. "Marki" is on order and should be joining the family any day now. He specifically ordered a female teddy bear hamster.
He spent several hours one night digging through storage to find the old hamster cage from Brittney's last pet, cleaned it all out and set it up in his room. He even sacrificed his big clunky stereo so that Marki could have pride of place on his book case. He has definitely shown a high level of responsibility and I think he's ready for it. And in other news, he's pretty sure he has a teeny tiny pimple forming on his chin. Not my baby anymore.

It's an odd year

We have entered the odd year. Katie is 23, Sarah will soon be 21, Allison just turned 19, Brittney is almost 17 and this month Alex turns 11. July is the start of birthday season at our house. July, September, October, December and January. But a shift has occured. They don't need or want the big parties anymore. Katie just had cake and even that took four days to get to. We are just never all in the same place at the same time anymore. Allison didn't want anything fancy either, so she had a simple cake, a trip to the carousel and a couple of friends who all stood around the kitchen counter and ate aforementioned cake. Yippee!! Party!! Alex is still indulging me. I love to plan and throw fun kids' parties. He still lets me. I added them up the other day and came to the whopping number 86. That's 86 birthday parties for my own kids. Now that does NOT include the parties I did for others when Sally and I had our party planning business, Partypalooza. I would have to consult official records to get that number for you. 86 birthday parties with food and guests and activities and prizes and goodie bags. Now I'm down to a mere two or three per year. That number will dwindle as the girls move closer to adulthood and I'll be left with one per year for Alex until he decides that he's too cool for that sort of childish stuff. Then what will I do with my time? I really want to open my party planning business and design and decorate the party house. I journaled about it in my Encyclopedia of My Ordinary Life album and I did an entry about it in Pam's CJ a couple of rounds ago. It's my dream to have this business someday. It would be the ultimate for me.

But I still have time. I have a party to plan as we speak. Alex wants to go to the Corn Maize (Field of Screams) with a few of his buddies. Then a sleep over and he's chosen a "hamburger" cake for the party. It'll be fun and noisy and exciting and exhausting. I can't wait.

Its Very Serious Business

Another Camp Scrappy has come and gone. It goes by too fast. We arrived early Friday morning and left late Sunday afternoon and it felt like only a few hours had passed. I love this group. I love the fun and laughter and sharing and just the whole thing. Every minute of it. I love that if you are in need of an item you have only to holler out "Does anyone have..." and three or four of them will shoot up into the air for you to select. Love that. I love the Chinese gift exchange and all the sneaky stealing. I love Trading Pages and the tears and laughter at the big reveal. I love the page contest and voting and seeing all the wonderful creations that everyone has worked all weekend to create and I love the big announcement of who won the contest and will be our free guest for the next year. I love all the help and support and that everyone pitches in to make, serve and clean up the meals and that they all stay late to help vacuum and sweep and move tables and load other people's belongings into the cars. Love it. Love it all. Love its guts. Can't wait for January and do it all again.