Birthday #5

The day started dry & progressively became the sunny blue sky day predicted. No one mentioned the temperature might not reach over 60. Jr.Gopher#1's friends came & partied. I've never been in such close proximity to so many extremely loud children. All totally focused on what they want to do, pretty much to the total exclusion of all other things (read: adults). In attendance were: Freddy from up the street (who goes to day care w/ Jr.Gopher#2), Will from St. Albert's, Frau Cinda (honest, he invited her explicitly), and the Kinderstube Crew: Olivia, Elsa, Lisa, Alec, Mäxle, & Ty.

Oy, the birthday presents! He got more loot than at Christmas! Jr.Gopher #1 being helped by Olivia)

















The birthday cake was a hair-pulling experience. See comments on further post w/ recipe.
Cake for his actual birthday, created with no stress:

















Cake for party. Observe failure to achieve aesthetic nirvana. Tasted pretty good, though!


















Grandma MaryBeth supplied us with a piñata. My techno whiz spouse, Mr. Gopher, managed to design something to keep the phocine piñata aloft. One end of the rope could be secured to fence; one end thrown over the rather high limb of the tree hanging over our yard would serve as the hanger. But, how to get the rope over the branch? (which is about 20' up) He tied the rope in a rather complex web around the 8" ball we purchased last night. A couple tries, and voila! The ball carried the rope over. We left the ball hanging - about 4' off the ground, to wait for the party later to be replaced with the piñata.

Our two boys spent at least 30 min. doing nothing but beating the ball with the stick. What fun!! No kidding, it was the life of the party. At least 2 other parents stared at the kids having so much fun simply bashing a ball around, and said "we ought to do that" as a regular installation for playing.

The kids show up for the party. Michael is just over the top happy. We hang up the piñata, and after ascertaining that only one of them had ever done this before, I offered the child-friendly directions:

Shhhh .... [shake the piñata] ... hear that? ... [lots of little heads nodding] ... those are goodies ... [lots of little heads nodding enthusiastically] ... do you know how to get the goodies out? [wave stick] You take the stick and bash it until it breaks!

I've got some pretty good footage of the piñata bashing.
















Alec, bashing the dolphin, is Jr.Gopher's current best friend.







The kids spent almost all of the 2 hours playing outdoors either bashing the piñata, bashing the ball, or playing in the huge sand box in the backyard.

The pinata continued to be useful after its preliminary destruction. (Will from St.Albert's):






















Later in the evening, the boys were watching a movie, and Jr.Gopher#1 abruptly bursts into tears. It's his favorite movie?! He's crying like his heart's broken. He was so sad because his friends all had to go home, and they weren't here any more.