Robots and Spaceships

Today we finally celebrated Luc’s fifth birthday party. I had planned to hold his party a week earlier at the boy’s gym - but decided against this. I was thankful for that decision as Luc was really sick last weekend. Thinking that this might be the last time we could hold a party for a number of young kids indoors, I set about planning a house-bound, activity-type party.  

Luc wanted a Spiderman party. I was completely over superhero parties (we had hosted a Superman and a Batman party last year). I told Luc we could have a Robot Party. “A Spiderman Robot party?” he inquired “No. A generic, non-commercial, non-trademarked, spontaneous type robot party”. Luc looked a little confused. “With spaceships” I added. Luc’s face brightened. 

The boys helped me to tape together two long pieces of paper, attach it to the wall and decorate it with space images in readiness for a space mural for the party-goers to decorate. Luc filled in spare moments during the week adding some planets, black holes and a few images of robots and spaceships. This was a really good build-up for the impending party. 

Paul and I were tired from a function we (reluctantly) attended last night (Luc’s school fund-raiser). Despite this, we had to prepare for guests due to arrive at 10:30am. Mietta was super-unsettled. Suspected tooth number 2. We had to leave her crying as guests began arriving. After most of Luc’s guests arrived, Luc had a monumental meltdown precipitated by the suspension of presents. He was removed by Paul for a time-out / talking too. Nicolas lost it as well as he didn’t have any presents to be suspended. Time out for Nic. At this stage, we had a house full of guests whom we left to fend for themselves as we attended to our three screaming children. Great start we thought. 

As it turned out, the craft projects / activities were a great opportunity to change moods. We ended up with a very happy and involved host as the children decorated cookies. This was a very successful part of the party and all the kids had a go at mixing colour into icing, spreading it on and then decorating their cookies with abundant sprinkles and candy. It was a lot of fun. 

Paul popped out to pick up some pizza and we were surprised to see almost all of it disappear (we usually over-order and end up eating pizza for the rest of the week!) Must have had something to do with the super-cold weather outside. Time for blowing out candles and I brought out a robot cake. Luc and Nic had been ogling this for the last day: this was the reason for attaching bells to the refrigerator door as an early warning system.  Lack of morning-sickness and / or brand new baby saw me attempt another home-made cake. Half carrot cake, half banana cake, this cake was a great excuse for cream cheese frosting. Yum!

Thank you to Joseph, Finn, Anahera, Max, Meredith, James, William, little Kaia and parents for helping Luc celebrate his birthday. Poor Callan had to miss the party due to illness. 

Photo: Luc blows out his candles.