The 6th Birthday That Almost Wasn’t
Bug turned six last week. Yeah, I’m still dealing with that emotionally. He had his family party along with Big Guy a few weeks ago, but his friend birthday was Halloween weekend. Here’s a picture of the birthday boys at the first party:
His actual birthday was nice. We opened presents and had waffles for breakfast. We were supposed to have an apple bread pudding, but I decided to use leftover hamburger buns and let them soak overnight. Big mistake. The whole thing was a pile of mush. Too bad it looked so delicious.
Luckily, the “buttermilk syrup” that I made to go with it was still divine and paired nicely with the waffles.
Bug opened his presents and then we went off to a friend’s Halloween party. We gave LadyBug a little something, too. I normally don’t like to do that, but Bug had two relatively big parties and got a LOT of presents. Lady Bug never complained, so I pulled out a treat for her. It’s a K’NEX set for younger kids and you’ll be hearing more about that later.
We ended up arriving a bit late to the Halloween party and lingered after most of the other guests had left. The kids were having a blast and so were we! I’m hoping to share some pictures of the party with you, because my friend really knows how to put together a themed event. Despite the forecast of snow (which had apparently worsened since the time I looked it up), we stuck around for dinner. We ended up driving home in blizzard-like conditions. Blech. We were just home for an hour or so before the power went out.
Here’s the thing. The power was an annoyance that night. The scary part was that we could hear the trees in the neighborhood creaking and cracking. I heard one close to our house and Big Guy went out to investigate. I warned him to be careful. I mean, really, this is one of those times in a movie where you’re shouting at the screen to stay inside! Don’t worry – he made it back in one piece. But not long later, we were settling into bed and heard a crack and a loud crash. We jumped up and ran around trying to figure out what had happened. Here’s are some hints:
Yep. A big tree branch fell on our house. That’s our bulkhead back there. It doesn’t look like there was any damage, but we won’t know until Big Guy’s brother comes over with the chain saw to clear it out.
So… when we still had no power the morning of Bug’s birthday party, I started to panic a bit. Luckily, the party was scheduled for a local gym and they miraculously had power. I had baked the first batch of cupcakes, so I was prepared to make the requested red racecar cupcake cake. I had to let go of some stuff… like buying store-bought cupcakes to make up for the second batch I didn’t get to bake. And I had to wing it on the parts of the cake that were supposed to be made from chocolate. I think it came out really cute.
The design is from What’s New Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. Here’s the cake with the spoiler (once again, it was supposed to be chocolate!):
I can’t post most of the pictures from the party because I don’t have permission from the parents, but here’s one of Bug in the “foam pit.” The kids love jumping in there!
So, despite having no power (it didn’t return for another 24 hours after the party, so almost 48 hours out), Bug had a super-fun birthday weekend. And, trust me, it’s one Big Guy and I will never forget.
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