It was a balmy March day when I figured I would brainstorm ideas towards the greatest birthday party any boy could want. After all, my youngest son was turning eleven in August and there was not going to be many more years of birthday plans to be had in the future, at the rate he was aging. (You know if you’re a mom and having been through this twice before, how around twelve or thirteen your sons no longer want what they consider something beneath them and embarrassing. They say things like: “Awe Mom, I’m not a baby anymore.”

So thinking I’m ahead at this game, I grabbed my son and asked for his opinion on my ideas. We decided on a bike party and I began to research ideas in magazines and on the Internet.

It being march-I guess I let down my guard and thinking I was so far ahead and having plenty of time, I kind of just poked along getting things for the party together until suddenly I turned around and my middle son-turning eighteen and not into kiddie parties had his birthday.

This was July and August sixth was fast approaching. I began to hastily make lists and start to purchase. The weather was so hot, we decided the hour for the party would be best early morning or evening. We set the date for the Saturday evening before my son’s birth date.

My first inclination of Murphy’s Law should have been when my son announced as we were readying the invitations, “TJ and Jimmy can’t come this day and Brendan has a game.” This was half his list of invites and of course he did not want to do it without them and they would also be upset if they missed the event.

So we switched the date. Now we were scheduled on a week past the actual birthdate, but it was so hot I was welcome for a time lapse. And besides i was having a time trying to find where to hold this thing at. We had to have an area to do a bike obstacle course with a shady spot to do the cake and Ice cream and place the presents. None of the schools would let us in for insurance reasons and the bike pit had no spot for the food to sit so with total- meltdown, literally and how can a mom let a birthday party stress her so much-my husband suggested the park down the street’s lot which very few people ever use since it is out of the way from the rest of the park.

That taken care of, we delivered the invitations and I ran all over town trying to find the “easy to come up with items”-at least that is what the websites’ had called them-pieces needed for the obstacle course and the other games my son had chosen. I finally had to make do and substitute another item for several such as cardboard boxes for pool noodles, etc. And breathing a sigh of relief and proud of my accomplishment, coming home I began to organize my paraphernalia.

“Where’s the cake?”, my son asked the morning of the party. Was I glad we had chosen an evening time to hold this party. I drove frantically around trying to find black paste food coloring, necessary for the black bike wheel tire cake I had planned to do. Have you ever tried to find black paste food coloring at the last minute? And as I was driving I noticed I didn’t need the air conditioning for some reason. The day previous had been in the 90’s, but that evening at the party the wind blew, the temperature was about 65-not that cold, but after being used to 90 and above-“freezing” with rain.

My son loved it though and it brought me great satisfaction having given him this, even if TJ, Jimmy and Brendan didn’t show.

From the first moment I saw her, I knew that parenting my firstborn daughter would be the biggest blessing of my life. She eased me into motherhood because she was the easiest going baby ever. The year she turned 5 was truly a special time for us and we wanted to give her a special birthday party to commemorate the event. However, we also had another new baby in the house this same year. To make it easier on ourselves, we decided we would have an out-of-home party so we wouldn’t have to invest the hours of time into having the party at home.

We decided to have a Build-a-Bear Party, with lunch at the nearby California Pizza Kitchen. We would have 12 children (including our daughter), as well as their families to celebrate at lunch with us. My husband would take care of ordering the cake. He was so into cakes and decided he wanted a two-tiered cake because they were so special. My only condition was that it had to have a bear on top of the cake to go with the Build-a-Bear theme. My husband found a bakery that would be convenient to the local mall where we were having everyone meet us for the lunch, and that could do the cake as we desired.

What started out as a simple idea turned into a rather elaborate and expensive idea. Just imagine 12 children ranging in age from 4-8 who were all invited to the party. Then, imagine all of the older siblings, babies, toddlers, and parents of those children who would also be joining us at California Pizza Kitchen. In total, 40 people ended up celebrating our daughter’s 5th birthday with us. We had a few very long tables reserved just for our party alone. We ordered a variety of pizzas, sodas, salads, and pasta to feed everyone. There were kids running around the restaurant noisily while poor bystanders tried to enjoy their lunch. To top off the event, my husband was picking up the cake from the bakery and bringing it to the restaurant (alone, mind you) as we ate.

Half-way into our lunch, he called me on the cell phone to let me know he just found a parking spot at the very crowded mall as everyone waited for the cake. He said that he was late because he had to drive very slowly in the hopes that the cake would not topple over in the car since the bakery could not cover the cake in a box without damaging it. After all, it was 2 layers and quite tall. On top of the cake, was not a plastic bear or a picture of a bear like I imagined, but a bear made completely out of frosting, sitting on its bottom on the top tier of the cake. In addition, California Pizza Kitchen was on the top level of the two-story outdoor mall.

What a sight it must have been for onlookers to see my husband get out of the car with a very large uncovered, two-tiered cake with a frosting bear sitting on top, as he precariously balanced it out of the car, slowly through the parking lot, even slower up the flight of concrete stairs, and into the restaurant. All the while, he was praying that he would not stumble or drop the cake as he walked at a turtle’s pace with it in the open air. My husband later told me that all he could picture in his mind as he carried our daughter’s cake was that baker guy from the old Sesame Street segments carrying several pies and yelling, “Twelve Chocolate Pies!” just before he slipped and toppled down the stairs, ending up with pie all over himself.

Thankfully, he reached his destination with the cake intact and placed it at the end of the table right in front of my daughter. Her eyes lit up when she saw that elaborate cake. Everyone thought the cake was beautiful of course, and the kids had fun making bears at the Build-a-Bear Workshop afterwards, but I will never let my husband forget how hilarious it was to see him with that big cake with the frosting bear on top walking slowly into the restaurant with beads of sweat running down his face. Nor, will we ever forget that even though it was the most expensive birthday we have ever thrown, it certainly was the most memorable.