I sat the date for Tommy's birthday party with his birth family before I knew Bill was going to take my big kids off on a trip the very same weekend...
I thought about changing it. I couldn't imagine having a party without Mary Susannah, who has become my right arm...and left hand...both feet...and my mind as well...
Then I thought: Hey, I used to do this kind of stuff all the time, all by myself! I can do that again.
And with that thought, I called another daughter, Rachael and said, "HELP ME!!"
She promised to come.
Bill, Beau and Mary Susannah left on Thursday. I should have gotten my first clue when it literally took until dinnertime to do the breakfast and lunch dishes. The kitchen has been Mary Susannah's domain for a while now. If it weren't that I had to go in the kitchen to eat the wonderful meals she makes, I'd probably forget where the kitchen is. Good thing I haven't forgotten...yet...
Max saved the day by coming over and bringing pizza for dinner. Otherwise, I'd probably STILL be doing that day's dishes.
Friday, church friend Igor called and said he had fixed Bill's car. Thrilled to have a car that didn't break down every few miles, I went and got it, and the kids and I loaded up and went shopping. Check out my last blog for details about that. Coming home, I cleaned up the laundry room, my bedroom, and worked on the porches, because I figured those were areas that wouldn't get dirty again. Then I went to bed, confident that I had everything in order, and party day would go off without a hitch.
In the wee hours of the morning, I dreamed that Luke was messing with my computer as I lay asleep, because I kept hearing a beep noise. It finally woke me, and I soon realized the beep noise was real, and not only real, but it was the electricity going on and off, and the beep was my window unit as it came back on each time. I fretted as I lay there, wondering if it would fix itself so I could bake Tommy's birthday cake? Once the sun was up, I called the electric company and reported the blinking. The nice lady assured me it would be fixed by ten. Okay, that didn't sound too bad, I thought. And it didn't - until the power went completely off a few minutes later...
Frantically I called the electric company back. I'm having a party in a few hours! I moaned. Again, I was assured it would be fixed by ten. SIGH...
Not having power meant not only was there no electricity, but also no water! I just began to clean as well as I could without it. I could dust, pick up, sweep and use my spray cleaner to get a lot done. But Texas is having a heat wave, and in no time, it was HOT. My back was wet and if my adrenaline hadn't been flowing, I'm sure my energy would have been lagging, too. I decided I would wait until noon, and if the power wasn't back on, I'd have to call the party off. I felt a little discouraged: for the past two years, I had planned Tommy's party at the Splash Pad here in Grandview, and both times, it had been broken, and we had had to move the party back to my house. So this year, I decided to skip the Splash Pad all together and plan it at home in the first place, and now the power was off and I couldn't even bake Tommy's cake!!
But thankfully, at 9:30, everything came back on with a bang of glory! I began to cook - FAST!!
But I was behind...I didn't have time to decorate...I handed the kids the balloons and the crepe paper and told them to decorate for me. Oh, how their faces lit up. They could not believe I had actually said that, and they went to work with three bags of balloons and four rolls of crepe paper.
Perfectionist Mary Susannah would have been mortified at the results, but hey, she had left me...
The party was due to start at two, and daughter Rachael showed up just before, cookies and camera in hand (Mary Susannah took my/her/our camera, too!) I handed granddaughter Chloe a carton of heavy cream and the mixer and told her to whip it for me. As the birth family began to pile in my door, I pulled the beautiful blueberry cake I had made from the fridge...and promptly dropped it on the floor. Blueberries slip off, but thankfully, the cake was intact! I hurriedly cleaned it up and put new blueberries on it, and topped it with Chloe's whipped cream.
Daughter Rachael and Granddaughter Chloe:
Grandma Joan brought lots and lots of drinks and fruit. Those were attacked quickly - remember it was about 115 degrees outside!! The pool and sandbox was a huge hit with the kids:
Angel-Leah got to show off her many kittens, which are a necessity to her happiness:
After Tommy blew out the candles, I handed Grandma Bonnie a knife to cut one of the cakes (I had made two). She pressed the knife into the cake...and the knife promptly bent in two.
It does not bode well when a knife bends in two while cutting a cake...
What in the world, I wondered. Rachael and Grandma Bonnie kept reassuring me the cake was frozen, but I knew it wasn't. A butcher knife finally cut a piece, and some brave soul took a bite and pronounced it absolutely wonderful. Not quite sure they weren't just being polite, I took a bite, too, and wow, it was pretty good. Uncle Ronnie, who has been to chef's school or something, even asked for the recipe. (If you were just being polite, Uncle Ronnie, just don't even tell me!)
Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ronnie:
Next, we opened presents:
Tommy got lots of wonderful things, including a slip and slide, a bag full of bug catching equipment, and a remote control train from his birth mother. Grandma Joan took this picture to send her. I love it, because Grandma Joan was having a bit of trouble with the camera, but Tommy continued to stand there and smile, even if the smile did get a bit strained after a bit:
And so, the party was a success. I had a lot of fun once I started to breath again. Tommy is very loved by everyone, and they are loved by us:
Luke and Grandma Bonnie:
Angel-Leah and Grandma Joan:
Angel-Leah and - HEY! IS THAT SANTA CLAUS??
No, wait, it's Poppy, or Grandpa Grant, who Tommy is named after:
Handsome Grandson Mikey came:
The slip and slide was a great success, and Tommy was just hilarious on it. He couldn't figure out how to slide, so he ran, dropped and crawled:
And so another birthday has come and gone, and my baby is four years old now. It's birthday time around our house, we have ten birthdays in the space of about two months. We will busy, and I'll write lots of blogs.
Don't I have the cutest kids and grand kids?
I thought about changing it. I couldn't imagine having a party without Mary Susannah, who has become my right arm...and left hand...both feet...and my mind as well...
Then I thought: Hey, I used to do this kind of stuff all the time, all by myself! I can do that again.
And with that thought, I called another daughter, Rachael and said, "HELP ME!!"
She promised to come.
Bill, Beau and Mary Susannah left on Thursday. I should have gotten my first clue when it literally took until dinnertime to do the breakfast and lunch dishes. The kitchen has been Mary Susannah's domain for a while now. If it weren't that I had to go in the kitchen to eat the wonderful meals she makes, I'd probably forget where the kitchen is. Good thing I haven't forgotten...yet...
Max saved the day by coming over and bringing pizza for dinner. Otherwise, I'd probably STILL be doing that day's dishes.
Friday, church friend Igor called and said he had fixed Bill's car. Thrilled to have a car that didn't break down every few miles, I went and got it, and the kids and I loaded up and went shopping. Check out my last blog for details about that. Coming home, I cleaned up the laundry room, my bedroom, and worked on the porches, because I figured those were areas that wouldn't get dirty again. Then I went to bed, confident that I had everything in order, and party day would go off without a hitch.
In the wee hours of the morning, I dreamed that Luke was messing with my computer as I lay asleep, because I kept hearing a beep noise. It finally woke me, and I soon realized the beep noise was real, and not only real, but it was the electricity going on and off, and the beep was my window unit as it came back on each time. I fretted as I lay there, wondering if it would fix itself so I could bake Tommy's birthday cake? Once the sun was up, I called the electric company and reported the blinking. The nice lady assured me it would be fixed by ten. Okay, that didn't sound too bad, I thought. And it didn't - until the power went completely off a few minutes later...
Frantically I called the electric company back. I'm having a party in a few hours! I moaned. Again, I was assured it would be fixed by ten. SIGH...
Not having power meant not only was there no electricity, but also no water! I just began to clean as well as I could without it. I could dust, pick up, sweep and use my spray cleaner to get a lot done. But Texas is having a heat wave, and in no time, it was HOT. My back was wet and if my adrenaline hadn't been flowing, I'm sure my energy would have been lagging, too. I decided I would wait until noon, and if the power wasn't back on, I'd have to call the party off. I felt a little discouraged: for the past two years, I had planned Tommy's party at the Splash Pad here in Grandview, and both times, it had been broken, and we had had to move the party back to my house. So this year, I decided to skip the Splash Pad all together and plan it at home in the first place, and now the power was off and I couldn't even bake Tommy's cake!!
But thankfully, at 9:30, everything came back on with a bang of glory! I began to cook - FAST!!
But I was behind...I didn't have time to decorate...I handed the kids the balloons and the crepe paper and told them to decorate for me. Oh, how their faces lit up. They could not believe I had actually said that, and they went to work with three bags of balloons and four rolls of crepe paper.
Perfectionist Mary Susannah would have been mortified at the results, but hey, she had left me...
The party was due to start at two, and daughter Rachael showed up just before, cookies and camera in hand (Mary Susannah took my/her/our camera, too!) I handed granddaughter Chloe a carton of heavy cream and the mixer and told her to whip it for me. As the birth family began to pile in my door, I pulled the beautiful blueberry cake I had made from the fridge...and promptly dropped it on the floor. Blueberries slip off, but thankfully, the cake was intact! I hurriedly cleaned it up and put new blueberries on it, and topped it with Chloe's whipped cream.
Daughter Rachael and Granddaughter Chloe:
Grandma Joan brought lots and lots of drinks and fruit. Those were attacked quickly - remember it was about 115 degrees outside!! The pool and sandbox was a huge hit with the kids:
Angel-Leah got to show off her many kittens, which are a necessity to her happiness:
After Tommy blew out the candles, I handed Grandma Bonnie a knife to cut one of the cakes (I had made two). She pressed the knife into the cake...and the knife promptly bent in two.
It does not bode well when a knife bends in two while cutting a cake...
What in the world, I wondered. Rachael and Grandma Bonnie kept reassuring me the cake was frozen, but I knew it wasn't. A butcher knife finally cut a piece, and some brave soul took a bite and pronounced it absolutely wonderful. Not quite sure they weren't just being polite, I took a bite, too, and wow, it was pretty good. Uncle Ronnie, who has been to chef's school or something, even asked for the recipe. (If you were just being polite, Uncle Ronnie, just don't even tell me!)
Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ronnie:
Next, we opened presents:
Tommy got lots of wonderful things, including a slip and slide, a bag full of bug catching equipment, and a remote control train from his birth mother. Grandma Joan took this picture to send her. I love it, because Grandma Joan was having a bit of trouble with the camera, but Tommy continued to stand there and smile, even if the smile did get a bit strained after a bit:
And so, the party was a success. I had a lot of fun once I started to breath again. Tommy is very loved by everyone, and they are loved by us:
Luke and Grandma Bonnie:
Angel-Leah and Grandma Joan:
Angel-Leah and - HEY! IS THAT SANTA CLAUS??
No, wait, it's Poppy, or Grandpa Grant, who Tommy is named after:
Handsome Grandson Mikey came:
The slip and slide was a great success, and Tommy was just hilarious on it. He couldn't figure out how to slide, so he ran, dropped and crawled:
And so another birthday has come and gone, and my baby is four years old now. It's birthday time around our house, we have ten birthdays in the space of about two months. We will busy, and I'll write lots of blogs.
Don't I have the cutest kids and grand kids?
That was great! A wonderful time was had by all!!! So says Nanny and Poppy
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! looks like you had a super fun time :) hope Tommy had the best birthday ever! X
ReplyDelete