More birthday

I wanted to correct a false impression that I'd inadvertently made yesterday - The Boy has lots of friends. He has friends EVERYWHERE he goes, and is quite a sunshiney, popular fellow. He could probably throw a party just for his senior friends alone.... he also has kids that he likes quite a bit in JK. The problem - and it's not really a problem - is that he prefers a lot of the girls in his class to the boys, mainly because the boys in his class are sort of lumpen and dull. But kids start self-segregating by gender in the next year or so and I don't want him to not have anyone to play with, eventually. And I don't think this is okay, and I wish that this wouldn't happen - but parenthood often makes my ideals (Wal-Mart is bad!) clash with my kids' needs (many, many pairs of tights and diapers), with my ideals generally ending up in the big metaphorical garbage can. Poor ideals.

So the solution, I guess, is that I'm going to invite his many, many female friends, and then invite the boys that he thinks are okay. As Sheryl just commented, it often does take boys longer to make friends than girls, and I think that my little guy might need help making friends with anyone who's not a super-effusive little girl. Super-effusive little guys, like mine, seem to be thin on the ground but it might just be where I live, where little boys have any enthusiasm backhanded out of them by their gruff* fathers.

Throwing great birthday parties is pretty easy. You just need a good theme - something age-appropriate and something that fits in well with your child and their group of friends. For example, last year my daughter wanted a Victorian tea party, so we had lacy tablecloths, tons of floral tea cups and dainty plates, finger sandwiches and chocolate dipped strawberries. The girls had lots of fun decorating sunhats and so on, but I realized that the majority of girls in the group were big loud hoydens**, so this year we're going to rent a karoke machine and have a rock star party.

And now, I am going to brag by showing some fantastic birthday cakes that my husband has made. Really, I won the marriage olympics - he's nice AND can decorate cakes! O, lucky me!

Last year's monkey cake, for The Boy's Monkey Party.


Not only was this train gorgeous, but the cake - which I made, thankyouverymuch - was just freakishly delicious and all of the mother's descended upon it afterwards. BUT I HAVE NEVER FOUND THE RECIPE FOR IT AGAIN. Curses.


The Girl's Fifth Birthday Cake. Isn't that unbelievable? The top towere was knocked a little bit askew before the photo was taken by a certain eager younger brother, but you can still see how lovely it was.

*My husband is the opposite of gruff. I'm gruffer than he is and I am the opposite of gruff.

** Not MY daughter. She's dainty and Grace Kelly-esque (in appearance. In personality, she is more like Queen Victoria), which really adds weight to my switched-at-birth theory.