Michele Made Me

Happy Birthday To Us!

by

 

Oooooooooof…  Happy Tuesday! Wow. I’m back. Took an unexpected bloggy break there…

That’s because I just said hasta la vista to a jam-packed birthday week and weekend.  Over the last few days, The Boy, Dia and I celebrated our 8th, 20th and um… OLDer birthdays respectively. The week started out with a whirlwind road trip to visit my girls, Elle and Dia, who share living quarters in Toronto. We spent a lovely afternoon with them catching up on life, school and work, and chatting about food and movies over the yummy vegetarian offerings at a small local restaurant. The service was great and the staff let us linger. We had a really really nice time. Despite the fact that they flew the coop a few years ago now, I still think it strange to visit these adults (!!!) that are my children, and see them living independently from us. Working. Learning. All by themselves. They seem to be handling it just fine. How does this happen, I often wonder. How’s it even possible?… I guess that’s just what kids do, eh?

Here’s a pic of my beautiful Dia taken at the aforementioned lunch.

The next few days I spent getting ready for The Boy’s Bowling Birthday party which we celebrated this past Sunday afternoon with 12 of his friends (boys only as he stipulated). The pizza meal was held upstairs in the bowling building and we only had a few minutes to spruce up the space so I wanted the decorations to be effective yet super-simple at the same time.

We needed balloons o’ course… So I concocted these balloon trees which The Boy dubbed “balloon supernovae”. That name rocks my socks so it stuck! I made the trees two days prior, and the day of the party we just plunked the gravel-filled plastic jugs down in the center of the tables and stabbed in the stems. Nice and easy!

The Boy is a huge fan of airplanes so I rummaged through my garland box for the colourful paper airplane garland from last year (he digs it) and divided the lengths into two batches. Then I hung the lengths with bread wrappers onto two wire hangers. When we got to the bowling alley I simply hung the hangers lickety-split on an overhead beam.

For cake, The Boy requested chocolate. I chose to do the chocolate cupcake thing and I’m so glad I did because they were tast-EE! I baked the cupcakes the day before the party and iced them the morning of. I topped them with piped buttercream frosting and finished them off with one upside-down red candy wafer (used as is) and a Smartie. Delicious and do-able (even for a non-cook like me)…

The little personalized handmade goodie bags Lo and I put together (using this template) for each guest went over well too. I made the bags a few at a time over the two weeks prior to the big day. We filled them with candy, notepads, pencils, erasers, hockey cards and one of my all-time favourite origami gizmos.

When we sent out invitations we specified “no gifts” because our little one has more than enough. We were overjoyed by all the lovely handmade cards that each child brought instead. Reading through them at the end of the day was definitely a highlight for me. They were just so sweet!

I can’t say the day wasn’t without its challenges. Kids playing catch with 10 lb bowling balls, for instance. Kids running down bowling lanes. And there was that one tiny injury too. Small hand caught in swivel chair… Oooooweeeee… But after the obvious pain and the gush of tears, the little guy bucked up and kept playing. Kids are amazing, aren’t they?

But on the whole, the party was a success, I think. We’re not used to having 13 boy-children in tow, you know? But they had fun and Lo and I managed well in my opinion. We stayed pretty relaxed through it all. And The Boy had a blast which was the ultimate goal!

So the week of birthdays is taken care of for another year, can’t believe it. Everyone’s happy. I know I am. Happy Birthday to me!

Well, you have a lovely day now. I will be back!

♥M

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amy Friend says

    What wonderful pictures. It sounds like you had a great weekend. Your daughter IS beautiful and looks a lot like you! I can't believe you invited 12 boys!! My limit is more like 6 🙂

    • Michele Pacey says

      I had worried about having to keep track of them all, but they stuck with us (mostly) so that was a relief. 13 boys is a lot though! I have a lot of respect for teachers who do twice that amount everyday of the week!

  3. Carol- Beads and Birds says

    Happy Birthday!! I remember those great kids parties for both my daughter and her two children that are older and want to take train trips to Chicago…alone with friends…for their birthday!
    Time flies and the memories are fun.
    xx, Carol

  5. CREATIVE MIND says

    Happy Birthday to you & your sweet family..I am sure you are having a good time..my Mother's birthday is also at this 8th & I think she is your age fellow..hmmm..stay blessed dear!
    Dia looks so cute, after all she is YOUR daughter 🙂

  8. chris says

    What fun! I think you did amazing things for your son. Congrats on another year well lived, wishing you many more. 🙂 Happy birthday to lovely Dia as well. 🙂

    • Michele Pacey says

      Thank you Chris. I can't get over how fast time flies. Sometimes I feel like the world is turning but I'm just here, standing still. It's interesting…

  9. SisterDG says

    Happy Happy Birthday to one of my favorite artists. How fun to have so many family celebrations clustered together like that. It looks like a splendid week. Here's wishing you a very creative year!

  11. Amy at Ameroonie Designs says

    I love the simplicity of the decorations and yet they simply scream birthday fun! You amaze and inspire constantly. 🙂 Hope your own celebration was wonderful and full of fun- Happy Happy Birthday friend!
    xoxo

  13. Michelle L. says

    Oh, so much fun and such cute decorations! You are clearly a fabulous party planner, let me just note that down in my growing list of your skillz. Happy b'day to all three – Dia is a lovely creature! And so are you.

  16. rossichka says

    Dear Michele, Happy Birthdays to you and your children! Be healthy and happy! What a beautiful daughter… just a little bit older than my son!:) The Bowling Party looks so exciting and unforgetable! You made lovely decorations and I'm sure the boys enjoyed them! It's so sweet that they made greeting cards for you son – such a nice way to remember this birthday after years…xx

  17. Catherine says

    Wow love all your simple but effective party decorations here Michelle! Happy birthday to you, you totally deserve the week off from blogging. I find it hard to imagine my girls all grown up and out in the world but I guess it will just happen before I know it won't it. Such a lovely natural shot of your daughter btw.

    • Michele Pacey says

      Thanks Catherine! She's a real cutie that one (They all are actually, but what else would I say, right?). It seems like a lifetime ago that she came into our world. Time is tricky that way…

  18. Melissa says

    Happy Birthday Dia, Happy Birthday Boy, and Happy Birthday Michele! Boy's party looks like a huge success. Kids are amazing – I agree.

    Whenever I look at the prospect of my girls being on their own I believe it can't happen so I can imagine the strange sense of displacement you must feel!!

    • Michele Pacey says

      Thank you sweet Melissa!

      A sense of displacement, yes. That's a great way of describing the feelings I have when I'm with my older children. It's like how a time warp must feel I think.

  20. Charissa says

    What a great update, Michele. Happy birthday! Your party decor is ingenious and I'm glad to hear how much you enjoy each of your kids. I'll look forward to celebrating N when he's 8 and…gulp, down the line…20!

  24. Carol says

    Happy Birthday(s) to you all, great celebrations, brilliant decorations and scrumptious looking cupcakes.
    Carol xx

  25. Anji* says

    Well belated birthday wishes to you all 🙂 I really love all the details from The Boy's party, those balloon supernovae are truly super indeed!