Day 1826. Yesterday we stayed home and stayed busy with the preparations for their birthday party today. I baked three cakes throughout the day, and once they were in bed in the evening, I combined the three cakes to one big one. I made some cream this year that I put on top, then I put the fondant on, creating three equal areas on top. Emmy's and Sammy's part were red, while Tammy's part was pink. Lastly, I created Micky Mouse heads with black fondant and put them all over Sammy's area, then I used blue gummibear string to create a spiderweb on Emmy's area. Then I covered the cake up and put it into the fridge. While I was doing all that, Randy was blowing up the many balloons downstairs.
This morning the kids were up early, as usual. I sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to them right away, in fact, I had sung it to them in the middle of the night, when Tammy came to me, and then when Emmy came. Emmy actually slept on his top bunk bed for the first time in a very long time. We/He had been saying for a while that he's going to sleep up there once he's 5, and now he did it even the night before he turned 5. And he was fine.
I had told the kids that they could open one of their presents in the morning, and so Emmy kept coming to me asking to open a gift. I told him to wait for his sister to wake up, and soon she was also up. After they'd had breakfast, I opened the box I had put all the gifts into to carry them downstairs and let them choose a gift each. Emmy's first was a Spiderman bottle. He said he wanted a toy, and so I then let them open a second gift. This time he got a cuddly Spiderman, which is just what he wanted. Tammy got a unicorn wallet with her name on and a unicorn. And Sammy got a talking Mickey in a car and a Mickey pajama. They were all very happy and walked off to play. I then closed my eyes again for some more rest.
It wasn't 10:30 yet, when I also got up. We had lots of preparations to take care of after all. We ended up letting the kids come downstairs, where they were playing with all the balloons, and there was a good number of them popping. Randy and I were putting the four HAPPY BIRTHDAY signs up. One of them outside. We also moved three big tables from the community room right outside our door for the kids' gifts and plates, napkins, and so on. Then we added some chairs for people to sit on.
I then went upstairs to put two pizzas into the oven and to start decorating the cake to complete it. I didn't get it done before we sat down to eat. After we had eaten, I finished it, always making sure no kids were coming into the kitchen. For once, I wanted them to be on their tablets to keep them away and busy. But it was also time to put their birthday T-shirts on. Emmy's Spiderman T-shirt said "I'm 5", while Tammy's unicorn T-shirt said "unique and already 5". Unfortunately there were no Mickey shirts for 5 year-olds, so Sammy's shirt read "I'm 5" with a crown on it.
After I was done with the cake, there was still lots to do, and the party was to start at 2 pm. There had been a lot of wind in the morning, which was worrisome. Tammy had been a great helper, fetching some bigger stones from the edge of the building, where there are lots of them, and I put them on the tablecloths, plates and napkins so they wouldn't fly away. Thankfully the wind had subsided quite a bit in the afternoon. I still had to put out their gifts on the tables, as well as the party favor bags, and had to remove some plastic packaging. Then I went into shock, when I realized that I did not have any Mickey plates and napkins! How could I have missed those! I did have the Mickey party favors and cake decorations but had not noticed the missing plates and napkins. We ended up improvising. Randy cut the remaining party favor bags in two, while I taped them to the table to make a tablecloth out of them. Then I got a tablecloth, some cups and napkins from a party from the past that I put on the table. Thankfully it wasn't a problem for Sammy, while it would have been for his siblings.
I went back upstairs to get dressed and put a pot of coffee on, and when I went back downstairs for the last touches, the first people were already arriving. It was Sammy's friend Janin from the wheelchair exercise group. Sammy hadn't seen her in a while and was very happy to see her again. He'd liked her a lot from the first moment he'd met her. Soon Sammy's second friend (from kindergarten) arrived as well, while Tammy and Emmy only had one friend each coming, as their second persons had canceled. Besides those friends, there was also Grandma. The kids all got their party favor bags that they started exploring, and so they were all busy with their respective friends.
After a while we decided it was time for the cake. They all went ouside, I closed the doors and carefully carried their cake downstairs. Then I started lighting all the candles. Unfortunately the big sparkler was too old and wouldn't light up. I went to the doors and told them in what order to stand next to each other, in accordance with their cake section, then they came inside. I started singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY while filming them. Everyone else joined in. Then they had to each blow out their big 5 candle and the five small candles. For some reason Tammy couldn't blow any out, and Daddy had to help her, like he'd helped Sammy. Emmy then took the toys off right away. I then started cutting and distributing the cake. We had two kids' tables out inside that Tammy and Emmy sat at with their friends. Sammy and his friends sat on the floor and used small chairs for their tables. The adults sat on the sofa and on the chairs outside eating their cake.
It wasn't long until the kids asked to move on with the program; it was Emmy, really. I told him we'd first wait for everyone to finish eating. Then we got their pinata out - the number five - and Randy hung it up on their rings they swing on. I had three bats that I gave to the kids, then they started hitting it, standing around it. All the other kids were standing around as well, waiting for the shower of candy to sweep it all up. It wasn't easy, and the pinata tore off the handle before it broke. Randy then held it and let them hit it that way. After a while it did break, and lots of candy spread out all over the floor. The kids went to work right away to gather as much candy as possible. Somehow Sammy had gotten hurt in that last push; his brother's bat must have hit him, as he was crying hard. I comforted him, then he joined the others on the floor to get candy.
Soon Emmy came to me again, asking whether they could open their presents. I told him he could go ahead. And so Emmy opened his presents at his table, together with his friend, while Tammy opened hers at her table, with her friend. Sammy sat on the floor inside with his friends, and I took his presents to him. They all opened their presents at the same time, and so I kept walking back and forth between the three groups to watch them and take pictures. They got a lot of gifts, and really nice ones. I had given Grandma a tip for each one, and most of the others I had purchased. But their friends also brought some nice stuff. Everyone was happy. Sammy was having fun with his gifts, and so was Emmy who was playing with his Spiderman stuff. Tammy had her nails painted right away, but it didn't last long. She really liked her music jewely box a lot.
It was so great to see everyone be so happy and have so much fun. The kids enjoyed every minute of the party. Tammy wanted to play her new game with her friend, and so we sat down on the floor and unpacked it. I read the instructions, and I played along with Tammy, her friend and with Sammy's friend. We had a good time.
By 4:45 the first people were leaving. Christine from Caritas had also come by for a short time, which was great, as we won't see her again for a long time now. It was hard to actually get to talk to people, but I had some good conversations, which was nice, as we parents really don't know each other. The only sad thing was that my Mom was the only one from the family to have come, but that's nothing new, unfortunately. The kids didn't even notice, as they're used to it, so it didn't bother them.
By 5:30 pm everyone was gone, and there was only a mess left and two very tired adults. I went upstairs with the kids, while Randy did some cleaning up, especially what was outside. I had already helped him carry the tables back into the community room. I went to the kitchen to make dinner for them, while they were on the tablets. Just a normal evening, I guess! Just before they were done eating, Randy was done and joined us. A few minutes later they all went into the bathtub. Tammy and Emmy took some of their new toys to the bathtub with them and had lots of fun playing there. Then we got them ready for bed. Emmy wanted to wear his new Spiderman pajama. I read them a story, we prayed, and they went to bed. Emmy on the top bunk for the second night in a row. It took them a while, but then they were finally asleep. I got myself something to eat, then started working on today's pictures. It's 1 am and I've got my report written, but the pictures will have to wait until tomorrow to get done.
