Birthday Party Fun!

One of the benefits of having a child with a summer birthday is being able to have an outdoor birthday party.



That is, unless it rains.

And rain it did.

I had the same game plan for the party this year as I did for Aidan's first birthday party last year. We set up 2 kiddie pools in the backyard, brought out all the kid's tables and chairs and set up a tent/canopy for some shade for the adults next to the pools. Last year it worked out great because it was about 100 degrees with 95% humidity. Perfect day for kids to go swimming.

This year? Not so much.

After Ry and his brother spent all morning getting everything set up and moved around outside, about an hour before the party was supposed to start the skies opened up.

Damn.

I had about 20 people coming, 8 of them being kids. I had no rain date/backup plan. I had no indoor activities planned for these kids, and nowhere for the adults to gather in the house because all the chairs and tables were outside. So now the hostess inside me is completely panicking. What do I do with all these guests to keep them entertained???

Well, Ry and Adam brought the canopy up to the deck and got it situated so people could sit at the table on the deck and stay dry, which was really nice, and worked out well because we were even able to do the cake outside too. As for the kids, well as they tend to do they entertained themselves just fine inside and outside too.

I made Aidan's cake this year because in checking out the construction cakes at local supermarkets I found all they were doing was putting plastic construction vehicles on a plain white sheet cake. I thought to myself: "I can do better". And voila, we had a homemade chocolate cake with an edible construction scene complete with chocolate candy rocks from my favorite candy shoppe, Fuzziwigs. I used crushed oreos and graham crackers for all the "dirt" too, which Aidan was convinced was real dirt when he started playing with the cake.

I know Aidan had a blast with all his friends and we were also glad that Uncles Amma and Donnie were able to join us for the weekend party festivites too (even if the insanity of all those kids inside our house may have been intimidating...)!!