Calvin's 8th Birthday Party

  If we could stop time for one month so I can catch up, I would be feeling better about life I think.  I have a laundry list of things I'd do in that time, things that would be awesome to get done before summer and the kids are home.  Obviously that isn't going to happen, so I am going to just have to be okay with it.

  About one month late, we had Calvin's birthday party.  I typed up some words really quickly in Word that just barely passed as an invitation for him to hand out to his new friends at school while I emailed his friends from his old school all of 8 days before the party.  I was feeling bad it was so last minute and thrown together, but you know what, it was great.  No theme, no crafting, no fuss.  That is what I need more of in my life.

  Almost all of his friends came from the previous school and a few came from the new school.  The kids made their own pizzas, we decorated donuts from the bakery (nope, didn't even have to bake cupcakes!), had another Easter egg hunt, and sang happy birthday with ice cream cones. It was perfect.  For him and me.  He felt so loved and that's just what he needed after a tough transition to the new school.

Most of the kids I knew would have lots of kitchen experience from being at the other school so I was not worried about this.  There was minimal mess.

We made way too much dough, had lots of leftover toppings, and by dinner we didn't have to think twice about what we were going to make.

The kids LOVED the donut decorating.  Speaking of minimal mess for the pizza, there was even less doing this.  They didn't want a single mini chocolate chip or sprinkle to go to waste.  We did this while Mike slaved away at the oven, trying to get all of the pizzas baked.  I used the vanilla and chocolate glaze recipes from here.  I wanted to make a blueberry one too, but that effort was forgotten on the stove amongst the chaos of children and was unrecoverable.  We bought the donuts from the bakery down the street and grabbed a couple of vegan ones for the kid with egg allergies and we were good to go!

    I was thinking the cereal would go on top of the blueberry glazed donuts, but you know how kids are.  The more toppings the better.  The candy and chocolate coated sunflower seeds that you can get at TJs were really good on top of the chocolate glaze.  Added some great texture to the donut.

  I bought a sample donut ahead of time to measure the diameter so that I ordered the correct size bakery boxes for them to store them in.  I was proud of myself for thinking ahead on that.  However, donuts are fried and therefore greasy and need a parchment liner.  Didn't think through that.  You win some, you lose some.

  At some point in between here, we put all of the kids in the garage (yikesssssss!), while Mike and I hid a bunch of eggs for an egg hunt.  That's what Calvin wanted when I asked him about activities for the party.  I happened to have a box of already filled eggs that didn't get put out on Easter, so my job was already half done!  It was super fun!

I'm so glad that the party came to fruition after all of the changing dates and push back I did.  Everyone had a great time and so did I.  I love parties, love hosting, love planning, and love celebrating our kids!  Calvin is now officially, officially 8.

Happy Monday!