A cupcake horror story

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OH NOOOOOO! IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!! HE'S REACHING FOR THE LID!!!!!!!!!!!

All caked out!

In my last post I wrote about how I like planning birthday parties. I guess it's a good thing I like making cakes too. Since Finn's birthday was during school break he celebrated his birthday with his preschool class today. He wore a crown all day, they sang songs for him, gave him a present and he got to bring some special food to share with everybody. Some kids bring hot dogs and pretzels, or even spaghetti and meatballs (which they eat at 9am morning snack time!), but Finn chose to wear his blue cookie monster shirt and wanted a cake to match.

So I went to work after the kids were in bed last night. Actually, I just decorated, because I had baked and frozen the cakes last week. Again, planning ahead is everything! :) The cakes came out very - blue. I bought paste food colours, and wow, they REALLY get the job done.

Cookie monster cake! (Two white cakes filled with blue vanilla cream and covered with fondant.)

And a few cookie monster cupcakes, because I wasn't sure the cake would be enough for 25 kids. The frosting was a bit too soft for piping, and I need to practice my piping skills, but these were fun to make!

Finn was a happy boy this morning!

And this afternoon. We brought home some leftover cake and cupcakes, so I hope Neil won't mind the blueness of it all. Otherwise he'll miss out on dessert tonight. :)

Seven little dragons having fun

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Mr. Dragon Cake ...

... and his little sister


... waiting for the guests!


Just like this little sister!

There they are.

Too bad dragons only have two eyes - they were a hit!

Reflecting on getting older? :)

Fun outside

And fun inside - with age-old games that are still as much fun as they were 30 years ago.

Neil hiding his emotions well.

And my home made pinata. Don't laugh - it worked!

Nope, this string wasn't it either.

Several tries later, the suspense becoming unbearable, Jana hit on something substantial here!

Hooray!

And last, not least, dragons need fire. Wow, smokey!

Yum, marshmallows!

It's maybe not as convenient as taking the kids to a playplace for a party, but I really enjoy hosting these birthday parties and making them special for our children. It takes a bit of planning and time, but to me it is so worth it. Finn and Lily are our greatest joy in this world, and to see them so happy and excited warms our hearts. Neil and I are a good team, Neil being the artist and hands-on entertainer, me doing the planning and making the food. Neil designed the t-shirts, by the way, and we had them printed at our local print shop. The green shirts I found on clearance for 1.50 each (shh!). :)

I'm sure these memories will stay with Finn and Lily, just like I can still remember the birthday parties at our house when I was a child. And before we know it they will be too cool and all grown up for a kiddie party like this anyway. Sniff.

Preparations, preparations ...

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Green balloons being inflated and streamers being hung all over the place

Neil drawing and cutting out paper dragons late at night


Blue having to endure garlands being tied to his climbing post (and yes, I am waiting for the day he falls out in his sleep, half hanging over the edge as he is!)

Sufficiently rested, Blue deciding to help make a pull-string pinata

Finn and Lily cooking up scary green dragon soup that would magically turn into jello over night

Two round cakes transforming into a dragon

And a 5-year old covered in green frosting

... can only mean ONE thing: it's PAAAAAAAARTY TIME!!!!!

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Actually, it was party time yesterday. We're still recovering, Lenny and Blue especially. Among the five friends Finn invited were the three wildest boys from his preschool class. We waited until the new school year started to have his party, so that everyone he wanted to come could be here. Thankfully the weather was nice so we could play games outside and let them loose in the yard.

Next year we're dropping them off at McDonald's. Just kidding (maybe) :)

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I'll post some party pictures soon!

In other news...

Lily had her first week in German Kindergarten and she did great!

Since we've had some questions about this, let me explain. In Germany Kindergarten means something different than it does in North America. It is NOT the grade before first grade. It's a playschool/preschool for children aged 3-6, before Elementary School starts. Since attendance is not obligatory there is not much of an academic curriculum, it is more like a daycare focussed on social and life skills. The oldest children will have a 15-20min academic session a day and get to do fun things like sleep-overs, learning about traffic safety rules with a police man, visiting the kindertheater in Munich etc. Classes are typically mixed ages, so the younger kids can learn from the older ones. That is why Finn and Lily are in the same group now.

Since Lily was already well acquainted with Finn's classroom and teachers she did really well. Her first day was Monday, and on Tuesday she was a bit surprised she was going again, but she loves it there. They do circle time, snack, free play, crafts, special activities and lots of outdoor play.

Ready to go!

And off to play! Oh yeah, bye, Mama...

So now I have three mornings to myself! Lily will stay home on Mondays because she has speech therapy in the morning, and Finn will stay home Thursdays because he has his play/motor skills therapy at 11am. Lily has been going to speech for a while (her teacher is Canadian and specializes in bilingual children - perfect) and has come a long way. We are tackling one sound at the time, and while her lisp is still very pronounced (and SO cute, ha ha), she can now say "fish" and it doesn't sound like "tis".

Finn just had his first therapy session. His Kindergarten teachers recommended having him seen at an Early Intervention place, and they decided he could use a little help in the fine/gross motor skills department. He also doesn't focus very well on a given task so we'll work on his concentration too. We have pretty much decided we want to keep him in Kindergarten for an additional year, and hopefully the school board will agree. He misses the cut-off for first grade by 5 weeks (it's Sep 30), so it shouldn't be a problem, especially since his pediatrician is on board too. I think another year to mature physically (he is still small for his age) and mentally will do him good. Not that he wouldn't be perfect just the way he is right now. :)

Hola! again...

As promised, here are some more vacation pictures.

One day we went to the Palma Aquarium, where we spent about 4 hours looking at all the fish. Finn and Lily especially liked the sea horses, mantas and sharks.

It was a hot day so we didn't spend too much time looking at the outdoor exhibits ...

... partly because I was afraid Lily and Finn would jump right in with the fish! And I wasn't really a fan of them putting their arms in either, yuck!

We also visited two bodegas Toni, our landlord, had recommended to us. We tasted and bought some good wines! And to Ulli's embarassment I also sampled the grapes from the grapevines. I'm shameless like that, and they were good! :)

A parent's nightmare: "Daddy, can I pull out this bottle?" (She didn't though. Now THAT would have been a cool picture!)

Since we could see the Tramuntana mountains from our finca we decided to explore them by car one day. The narrow, curvy roads were not for the faint of heart. We passed quite a few bikers climbing up the mountains, impressive! I felt like passing the poor fellas a water bottle from my car window.

We visited a monastery in the mountains ...

... but Finn and Lily were most impressed with the mountain goats they spotted. They promptly started climbing "like mountain goats" - and up was easier than down.

Then it was on to Cap Formentor, the northernmost point of the island.

The view was breathtaking, but again, the goats were WAY more interesting if you asked the kids.

This is Alcudia. The old city center was a 10min walk from our house.

Ulli wanted to go see the archeological site in Alcudia, where they are digging out remains of the Roman settlement that was there 2000 years ago. We somehow managed to miss the entrance, which we realized when we came to the end of the big fence surrounding the property. Well, the iron slats were far enough apart for the kids to easily go through and the way back was long, so Neil and I squeezed through as well. Ulli, however, chose to walk back (under the false pretense of not being able to fit through), only to discover you actually had to pay to get in.

Before you call the authorities on us - we paid on our way out, of course. :)

This picture is not spectacular in any way, but please note the bulging pockets in the kids' shorts. They were very busy picking up little white empty snail shells - they were all over the place. Back at the finca they put the snail shells on the nightstand in their bedroom - and for the next few days they were: ALL OVER THE PLACE. Disoriented little snails climbing up the wall, on the lamp, their toys, the table - guess they weren't so empty after all, even if they looked empty! And they were so small they were hard to see, being stuck on and under all kinds of things.

The little path in the picture above led us to the site of a complete Roman theater they dug out. It was carved out of the rocks and seated 2000 people. Cool! The kids had fun climbing all over the place, and were especially fascinated by the cave you can see in the background. It had troughs for animals inside.

Of course if you wanted to find Ulli you needn't look further than the nearest fig tree. :)

Ulli ate figs by the pound there - bought at the market or fresh from the tree. They were delicious!

Our last night we spent at a nice open air restaurant at Cap Pinar, watching the sun setting over mountains and sea (the adults), pushing other kids off the teeter-totter on the restaurant playground (Finn), and sitting around dazedly after a head-first fall resulting in a major goose-egg (Lily). Thankfully the ice and lollipop provided by friendly staff helped a lot in reducing swelling and tear flow.

So - all in all a great vacation! We came home with a bit of a tan (well, some of us did) and tanked up on sunshine. It was great to escape the rainy fall weather for a bit. We're thankful that no major accidents happened, except for Lily's fall. Well, and mine. I managed to slip on the very narrow wooden staircase in the big house, so I went down a bit faster than I had planned. My fall ended when my (bare) right foot got caught in the banister, which resulted in major bruising of the same but thankfully no broken bones. A few glasses of vino may or may not have been involved, I couldn't rightly say. :)