Happiness = pink high tops and chicken strips

[threadwalker]

Miss E turns 5 today. Yay!

Quickly followed by, "Yikes, she's so big!"

And how do you celebrate turning 5? I punt!

I got to wake her up by singing happy birthday and kissing her all over her face. She joined me downstairs while I put the finishing touches on 2 dozen cupcakes baked into ice cream cones and decorated to look like ladybugs. (She requested Spiderman, but the cupcakes came out too small for me to do decent Spidey faces, so I punted - red frosting + black outlines + candy eyes can also = lady bugs.) The cupcakes are for her after school program, which is at a day care center and not her at her grammar school.

Intersting how times have changed, but you are no longer allowed to bring in home-made food at the public schools. In our school district you are also not allowed to bring in treats for birthdays either. The only time you can bring food is on designated class events and it needs to be in upopened store packaging. I'm sure numerous law suits have driven this change. On the one hand, I totally roll my eyes at this over-controlling measure. On the other, it seems a no-brainer to me that you'd keep nuts OUT of your school treats since nut allergies are so common and frequently so intense, but I have heard the tales of it happening anyway. It's the "Clash of the Stupids" and Stupid won.

Actually, the whole cup-cake adventure is a punt. It just so happens that almost all the kid-families we invited for Saturday are out of town and it looks like we are also scheduled against a school mates b-day party. We're having 2 kids plus a bonus toddler over on Saturday. After scratching my head, I punted. I concocted the cup-cakes for the Day Care program so that she could share her birthday with kids she's known for years. Then I pitched Saturdays small party to Evie as an intimate fairy-pirate party where everyone will dress up (I need to call a few moms...), she gets to pick the menu, we'll have a jump house, rootbeer floats, etc.

She's all glee. Whew! I'm the Queen of Punt.

So this morning it was off to Day Care with an army of lady-bug cup cakes, each kid carefully carrying the plastic container I quasi-crammed them in. We had one small rebellion that resulted in a dog-pile of lady bugs in one box, but I sorted it out and no one lost an eye. Which is important because the eyes are M&Ms.

Tonight after school we are going shoe shopping for Miss E, who desparately needs new sneakers. She's voting for pink high tops. And for her special birthday dinner tonight she wants to eat at home and she has requested (drum roll) chicken strips and french fries. The ones from Safeway.

(hand slap to forehead!)

I offered a long list of things, but that's what she wants. Isn't being 5 years old great? Happiness = pink high tops and Safeway chicken strips. If only we were all so easily pleased.

Since Saturday will probably feature a dozen adults and 4 kids, I'm punting again. Instead of Hot Dogs and Kid wrangling it will be BBQ and Catan/card games. Miss E's bday party will be very enjoyable for all ages because it's so small.

I may be on the "Needs Remedial Tutoring"-List for the Donna Reed Mom Award Program but I'm the Queen of Punt. I may have to create a membership list for all the Queens of Punt. We rock.

Comments

[dizzyblonde30.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday to Miss E!! Those ladybug cupcakes sound wonderful!

Maybe we should learn a lesson on being 5 and what Happiness is :) I think we tend to over complicate life :)

Hope the birthday party is wonderful !!!

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

Thank you. The cupcakes were pretty cute. I totally got lucky because cute kid-food is NOT my forte.

Yeah, there are some lessons in 5 year olds. They can be pretty surprising with their insights.

[dizzyblonde30.livejournal.com]

You should have taken pictures to share!

Kids are the best in my book :)

[sir-titus.livejournal.com]

Safeway chicken strip and french fries arm my idea of heaven. May be i have never matured past five. I can live with that

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

lol... I'm still 5 at heart, too, but my favorite is the cheese burger at McD's. With fries and an orange soda. That's my idea of heavenly food.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

For my father, a birthday treat means a store-bought birthday cake. When he was growing up, his mother stayed at home and often baked excellent cakes, pies, cookies, etc. Since that was a regular, everyday thing, having a store-bought cake (with its store-bought icing and decorations) became a very special thing (plus he was born during the depression, so spending money on something like that was also a big deal), even though the store cake didn't taste as good as the homemade one.

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

my mom is the same way. Born into World War II. No money and definitely no money for store bought pastries. And boy oh boy does she love 'em!!!