Successful, Yet Insane

I decided some time ago that it would be a good idea to have a birthday party for all five kids the day after hosting a big family reunion. This family reunion involved out of town company so that meant the house had to be clean enough to have them here.

First, we’ll start with the cleaning. I had a pretty busy week. Ronald came home, it was pay week, Perrin had therapy with all three therapists (two of them work as a team), and I got hooked on Teen Mom and couldn’t pull away from the trainwreck. Since Friday was full of errands, I had to do most of my cleaning Wednesday and Thursday. Then I had to redo it Friday because… well… I have kids. I managed to pull it off, including washing all of the guests’ bedding, and still get 5 hours of sleep last night.

There’s also the shopping that had to be done for a party and a reunion on pay day when we had a ton of other errands to run, such as paying the insurance and car payment. My husband has this thing about handing money directly to bill collectors, or getting as close as possible. No auto pay for him.

I decided to do a Wizard of Oz theme for the birthday party but I can’t afford to hire a cake maker this time around like I’ve done in the past so I had to do it myself. I am spoiled by 3D cakes and a plain sheet cake with plastic things on it wouldn’t be enough. I spent a very long time in the aisles of Wal-Mart, trying to find Wizard of Oz figures of some sort because I didn’t think to order them, and I also thought I’d find a specific frosting tip to make grass that my wal-mart doesn’t seem to carry. I had to go back on what I had originally planned because of this, and I’m intimidated by fondant.

I also have to add that this cake is a rainbow cake. You can google to see what I mean. The whole cake has rainbow colors in it. So I made one and it was too thin. I ended up cutting it up for a trifle for the family reunion. Then I made another rainbow cake and it worked better. However, since it’s a single layer 10 inch cake under a double layer 6 inch cake, it looks more like a hat than a hilly meadow.

I (obviously) frosted the cake green, then made fondant for the first time ever for the yellow brick road. It went fairly well, but I tried to make poppies too and those looked more like outer labia. I don’t think I want a field of vag on my kids’ birthday cake.

There’s also the other cooking I had to do/will have to do, the packing of the car, the lists about lists, and so on.

Plus, today being the day of the family reunion, we had a hail storm. Lovely.

The reunion was pretty much a success otherwise. My throat is irritated from being around cigarette smoke because people are inconsiderate. Not only do I not want them smoking right next to my kids, but my mom is a former smoker with copd and she doesn’t need to breathe that in either. My mom’s boyfriend was bitchy and bit my head off, and I almost told him where to go in front of half of my maternal family. Otherwise it was nice. People ate lots of food, took lots of photos, and had lots of fun. Everyone thanked me and there’s already talk of doing another one next year.

When I got home, Louie had to call the landlord because the toilet was leaking. He even soaked water up with a towel. When the landlord got here, he couldn’t find a leak.

Tonight I had to finish the cake, do dishes, and chase kids. My uncle was nice enough to get pizzas for everyone for dinner so at least I didn’t have to cook! What a lifesaver!

Tomorrow, I have to cook sloppy joes, scalloped corn, and salsa. I have to prep carrots and dip and salsa and chips. I have to get my cake to the park without screwing it up, set up the shelter, chase away kids that aren’t invited because the reservation system there is pretty loose, and then hostess a birthday party for all five kids. Then I have to clean it up.

The plus side to all of this is that it’s all over in one weekend. The family reunion wasn’t that hard by itself. There’s not much decorating or anything. Whip up food, lay out tablecloths, chase off family of people that are clearly not related that think they’re going to sit in the shelter all day because it’s raining, take a few photos, give a few hugs, and clean up before going home… easy peasy. It was the idea of everything being the same weekend that seemed like a great idea and now seems crazy, but it’s over. over. over. I cut out not only the time it takes to have five birthday parties but the expense and the work. Knowing that I don’t have a single birthday party to throw this fall is glorious. My kids all have birthdays between September 1st and November 11th. It almost feels like we’re having a birthday party every weekend, and in September we pretty much are.

I know this was all over the place and maybe a little confusing, but this is why I haven’t had much to say the past few days. I’ve been ridiculously busy. I’ll be witty again soon enough, if I can stop watching Teen Mom.