The Squirrelly just turned one (as I mentioned), so we had a birthday party for him last weekend. In anticipation, The Queen went to the store to buy decorations. I didn’t think we really needed them since only a few family members would be attending, but she somehow got it in her head that they were mandatory.
She returned with a bag full of construction paper, markers, glue sticks, glitter and the like. Apparently the only decorations the store sold featured proprietary characters — Thomas The Tank Engine, Spongebob Squarepants, etc. — and The Queen, determined not to give any money to The Man, resolved to make her own. This came as a surprise to me since my wife is probably the least crafty person I know, but she was adamant that there would be decorations and they would be handmade.
Of course the day of the party arrives and of course we’ve made pretty much no effort to clean our house or do anything else to prepare. So we spend all morning running around, throwing baby toys into the closet and scrubbing squash off the walls. Fifteen minutes before the scheduled start time The Queen suddenly realizes that she’s forgotten to decorate. At that same moment my cousin arrives a bit early, is handed a bag of art supplies, and told whip up something to make the place more festive.
She made this and stuck it on the wall moments before the rest of the family arrived. It was our only decoration.
Rats. She got the number of candles wrong.
I’ve always been opposed to a correspondence between age and number of candles, in cases like this particularly. To my mind, a cake with only one candle is like a duct tape tuxedo; despite a superficial resemblance to what looks good, it’s clearly not on the same level.
One already? Wasn’t Squirrelly just born like three months ago? Man, time flies.
Party problems? Panic clean ups just before someone arrives at your house? Wiping grime off the walls and picking junk off the floor at the last minute?
Remember this well Matt
the candles aren’t wrong — he’s five in dog years.
That is the absolute best!!!
Simple, minimalist, clean design…. it
So…is the house still decorated?
Honestly, very unique decorations. The Squirrelly will be very pleased that the effort was made for his first.
:)
Buy yourself a new ipod and give Squirrelly the box to play with – that’s my philosophy on 1st birthdays and Christmas.
Wow, I am so glad that I wasn’t the only mother of a soon to be one year old who just *had* to have decorations for a small family birthday party. Maybe it is some sort of weird hormonal thing. I lucked out though, because my daughter was born on Valentine’s day, so it was easy to find some heart themed schwag to stick up in the dining room. Of course, I too forgot all about it until a few minutes before my family started coming over, and I enlisted the first person through the door (who, thankfully, was about 6’5″) to put up the heart streamers.
I like that the candles look like lit matches stuck in the cake. Pretty!
hard to describe how awesome that is.
happy 1st
I think that is brilliant.
Happy Birthday Squirrelly! Please tell me that’s not a post-it :)
Fantastic! I hope the party was a big success, and that the Squirrely got lots of cake everywhere. :)
That is an excellent poster. You have to keep that so the Squirrelly can truly appreciate it when he’s older.
That’s a Post-It
A cake, sans plate, floating in mid-air? Was David Blaine anywhere in the vicinity? I believe this may rate higher than ponies and clowns. Definitely less scary.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT AND SQUIRRELLY….
“Apparently the only decorations the store sold featured proprietary characters — Thomas The Tank Engine, Spongebob Squarepants, etc. — and The Queen, determined not to give any money to The Man, resolved to make her own.”
AND I LOOOOVVEE YOUR WIFE!
When I read that I was like: Is that us? No, wait. We wouldn’t even have a party ’til like 3 weeks after her birthday.
so what is it you all on these blogs? I just saw it on cnn news and find it interesting
dawn