Party On!

Colin's 1st Birthday Party

Oh what a day! Colin may not remember too much of his first party but Shelby and I will. We got up nice and early because we each had things to do to get ready for the party. We had told the satellite guy it was ok to come by about 7:30 and install the satellite dish for us and he arrived right on time. Little did we know that he would required Shelby's assistance with the installation for hours. So Shelby spent a good part of his morning in the attic with the worker putting up the dish. In between helping the man he would run down and try to prep meat and get it ready for the grill. He had a several racks of ribs, pork roast, chicken breasts, and brisket to prepare. Colin, who woke up yesterday morning with a cold was not a happy camper at all and was very fussy all morning. I ended up having to take him with me to pick up ice and the cake because Shel was stuck in the attic with the worker and couldn't tend to him as planned. The cakes were adorable, a big monkey face and a mini monkey cake for Colin. I had cut jungle leaves out of construction paper to put under the big monkey cake...I was so excited. I finally get home and we unload, we put the cakes and some stuff on the dining room table because the kitchen is a disaster and taken over with meat. At some point around 12:30 I discover that half the monkey cake has been eaten by a/the dog(s) (my money is on Kalia). I then discover that a small chunk of Colin's cake has also been eaten. I have to stop and focus on breathing so as not to kill my dogs at this moment. I had just forked out $85 for these cakes that didn't even last an hour AND now I have no birthday cake and guests arriving in about 2 hours. Fabulous! I photographed the cake because I'm sure one day I will look at it and laugh, today is not the day however, and then head off in search of a new birthday cake.

Not a single backerei is open because it's during that whole 1-3pm siesta/quiet time/lunch break thing that Germans do and they all close their shops and reopen in the afternoon. I try a grocery store that had nothing that resembled a birthday cake. Finally I find a grocery that still has a whole cake left. I am a little worried wondering why it is that no one has purchased any of the pieces of this cake and it is still intact and whole....but at this point it's a whole cake and I don't have much choice so the lady wraps it up and off I go. I came home and repaired Colin's mini cake enough for him to smash and eat. Yes I fed my child the cake the dogs ate off of. Did you not read the posts about him being in the dog food bowl a few days ago and then breaking into the pantry and eating dog treats? I figure if that didn't kill him a little left over dog drool wont either.

I have about an hour left before guests arrive, Colin is finally down for a nap (thank goodness) and I am sweeping and mopping like lightning. Shelby is grilling away and putting drinks on ice and then I bring out the balloons to decorate with. These are the same balloons I spent about 4 hours trying to find helium for Friday and then forked out 15 Euro to fill up (about $21). I tie some on the patio and a couple out front and they look adorable like I knew they would. Within a few minutes my dogs had discovered the balloons and attacked and eaten the ones they could get to. Do these dogs have a death wish today? Now I have to say that we are partially to blame for the little balloon attack because at one time we used to buy them these balloons as toys to play with. However, that was a long time ago and we yelled at them to stop and they still carried on and got to the balloons before we could get to the dogs. So I do some rearranging, put the dogs in the back yard and tie some more balloons out front. AGAIN the damn dogs houdini'd their way out of the back and got to the balloons out front. Are you serious?! Craigslist post # 367312038538: Damn boxer for sale - buy one get one free! I refrain from killing the beasts for a third time today and give up on balloons.

People arrive, Colin is still napping, I have a glass of wine and the day finally starts getting a little better! Colin woke up in not much better a mood than the one he went down in, poor sick baby. He ate a little of his BBQ dinner, he's hardly eaten since he got sick Friday. It was time for cake and we sing and he liked that part. Shelby and I helped him blow out his candle and after that he was not so interested. He wasn't so much a fan of the icing sticking to his hands and kept waving them around trying to get it off. We laughed at him for a while and he ate some and wore a little. Then someone decided he wasn't messy enough and helped him out with that. He wound up looking like a cave man and was covered in brown icing. Poor kid. He tolerated it for a little bit but when he decided he was done he was DONE. Even though he hadnt been awake very long he was pretty tired. He perked up when he got to go in the pool to wash off. Kalia discovered him in the pool and waded around with him helping wash him off by licking the icing off his head. Colin thought this was insanely funny and egged her on a good bit. By the time the poor kid got out of the pool it was late and he was a bear. I decided to give him just a present or two from the people who came to the party to open and the stuff we had that came in the mail to wait until tomorrow. We told people not to bring presents and to bring a side dish instead since he got plenty of gifts from our family. He liked opening despite being tired but about 2-3 gifts was all we got through and then he was over it. Lucky for us the babysitter was on hand to take over and we handed him over to her to take care of and we went back to our party.

The next morning Colin woke up in a better mood and seemed to feel a little better so we had him open the rest of his presents then. He had a ball opening things and playing with the paper. He did very good opening things and checking them out and then not getting upset when we took it away to give him another gift. Shelby had picked out this ride on toy when we were in toys r us birthday gift shopping that we bought for Colin. We had no idea it would be such a hit, Colin loved it! He likes things with steering wheels we've noticed. His big gift was an outdoor playground for the yard. Lots of family chipped in to get him this and he had a ball playing on it. He is still a little afraid of the slide, but he likes playing on it. When he starts climbing and walking soon it will be perfect for him.

Despite having to install a satellite, the dogs tearing up the balloons, the cake being eaten by the dogs, and Colin being sick and grumpy, the day turned out ok. We will definitely remember this party for sure. Next birthday party the dogs are going to the kennel!