A Freckle At A Time...: The Party

I thought I was ahead this time. I mean, I had 22 capes sewn and ready by Tuesday. That's planning ahead! Then the rest of the week I was swamped, and before I knew it the day was here. (Insert husband's 'I told you so' look) I do it every time. But we had fun getting ready yesterday. I made a huge mess in my kitchen making the cake, which turned out pretty good.

We have a thing called 'the 2 year old test'. We use it when drawing our stencils for my LumberJacks and Jills shop. If our 2 year old (almost 3!!) can tell what it is, we've got something good. Well, the cake failed the test. She knew it was a 'K'. Win. "Kinley, what's next to the K?" "A snake!" Fail.

So in case you're wondering, it's a cape. It was my first time ever carving a cake to the shape I wanted. Usually I use a pre-shaped cake pan, but believe it or not, I couldn't find a flying super hero letter K. But it tasted great!

Then there's the venue...I called around to different parks to try to rent space. I've never done that before, and I was shocked at how expensive it was. Most of them were $75-$85 for a half day. One was $150. As I said in an earlier post, I love to throw a big party, but I have no desire to go into debt over it. So I called the little park right up the road whose pavilion is old, tiny, and not all that nice. I thought for sure it would be more affordable. Nope, same price as the others. So I ask if there's a charge to just throw a party on the grass field, and they said we could use the grass for free. I even clarified that if someone ended up renting the overpriced pavilion, we could still use the grass. Perfect!

Unless of course you show up, and there is a party under the pavilion, and not only did they fork over the money for that cement slab, they also rented a huge princess bounce house, sitting right there in the grass field. Crap. There was still room for us, but we hesitated. Do we switch venues? Do we try to call everyone frantically and send them to the camp instead? My level-headed husband found a spot in the grass and we set up, despite the massive, cooler-than-ours party happening behind us. Well, they don't have hand-made super hero capes for every kid, so at least there's that, I thought. Until the first kid shows up, overjoyed at the sight of the bouncy house, only to learn that she can't play in it, and bursts into tears. DOUBLE FAIL.

But we ended up having a great time, and the capes really were a huge hit. We had a picnic style party. My mom read the ABC book, in an animated way that held the gaze and attention of every child there, in a way only she can do!