Happy Birthday (Party) Connor! 05.02.2009

I'm just gonna put it out there... I can be controlling, obsessive compulsive, and anal retentive about a lot of things. I'm not this way about everything, but there are a few things that always send me over the top in search of perfection... These things include - but are not limited to - holiday entertaining, planning my kids' birthday parties, decorating for Christmas, and searching for hard to find toys and video games on Ebay. Typically, I start the planning process for my kids' birthday parties about 8 weeks in advance of the actual birth date. 4 weeks before the birthday, I have a final plan. 3 weeks ahead of time, invitations are in the mail and all party supplies are bought. The last 6 months have been pretty crazy in our house - ranging from numerous illnesses, my back injury, another back injury and a trip to the ER for me, back surgery, Tony's work schedule and schedule at the recording studio, and all of the normal kid stuff. Add in to that mix a very demanding 2 or 3 weeks at work and the result is that I didn't have time to over-engineer Connor's birthday party like I typically do. This actually worked out for the better. We had a smaller party this year, at home, with just close family and Connor's 3 best friends from school and the neighborhood.


My dad stopped by before the party with a Blue Jackets shirt for Connor. Connor's favorite player is Rick Nash... I love that my dad buys Connor adult sized sport jerseys and tells me to make sure that I wash the items on hot so that they shrink.


My dad also gave Connor a Blue Jackets foam finger, which Ian immediately confiscated and declared to be his.


Fruit, veggies, a can of Diet Pepsi, and my grandma's arms.


Papa John's pizza always seems to be a favorite with kids and it's cheap. Connor loves their cheese sticks, so I ordered plenty of those too.


Birthday cake and cupcakes from Sam's Club. I won't lie to you, I really like Sam's Club cakes. I'm not a cake snob by any means and their cakes are cheap, sugary, and tasty. (Note: I did attempt to bake two cakes myself for Connor's birthday. The baking went just fine, but I ran in to some technical difficulties with a can of black airbrush frosting. I didn't like the way that the airbrush effect looked, so I got frustrated and ran to Sam's right before the party and was lucky enough to find Batman cupcakes. Thank you to Tony for not saying "I told you so" after I gave up on my homemade cakes... He warned me before I made the cakes that I was out of mind with what I had planned, but was nice enough not to bring it up again after I threw the cakes away. For the record, things went wrong when I tried to airbrush on a LEGO Batman character with a handcut sencil that I had made. The airbrushed color ran everywhere and generally looked like shit.)



All of the adults were pretty beat after the party, and Tony fell asleep on the couch for a while. He always sleeps better when he has his favorite Webkinz and Barbie car with him. Also, that last sentence was a total and complete lie. I though that it would be funny to put toys on Tony, take a picture, and post it on the internets for all to see. Hehehehehehehe. I'm an evil genius!



This is my 4 year-old cousin Emma. She's the most adorable little girl on the face of the planet. She helped me decorate Tony with toys and loaned me her Barbie car for the photo.



My cousins Dylan (7 years-old) and Emma spent the night with us after the party. Connor and Ian love having them over and are always excited when friends can stay the night. I put the air mattress in the living room for them and somehow all 4 kids and my dog were all able to fit on the queen sized bed. I cannot believe how late these kids were able to stay up, especially after running around for about 8 hours straight earlier in the day. They finally all laid down and went to sleep around midnight.