Everett's Birthday

Get ready for way too many pictures.

Last June, my tiny baby turned FIVE.  FIVE.

Five seems so old.  So grown up.  Kids do big-kid things at five.  Like ride a bike.  And go to friends' houses by themselves.  And put their dishes in the sink after dinner.  Five is a milestone birthday.  The gateway between babyhood and childhood.  How could it possibly be that Everett is already five? 

Yet time marches on and here we are.  His party was the day before the big day.  He had asked for a Mickey Mouse party, and (amazingly!) we were able to accommodate that.  We saw a bunch of Mickey Mouse paper party plates and Mickey Mouse Christmas noisemakers at a store in Khobar called Zamils back in March, and without hesitation, we had bought everything they had.  Then, even luckier, the Toys R Us just off camp had Mickey Mouse party hats, tablecloths, banners, and napkins.  Party supplies?  Check!!

(You people at home have no idea, and so will have to imagine, the enormous extent of my extreme relief that we had the party theme covered.  It is SO HARD to get stuff like this here.  So SUPER AWESOME HOORAY I-FINALLY-DID-SOMETHING-RIGHT-FOR-MY-CHILD CHECK CHECK CHECK!!) 

But then we had the issue of the cake.  Up to now, I had bought a fancy buttercream-but-decorated-like-fondant cake for the kids' first birthdays, and then done the cakes myself for the subsequent birthdays.  But there was NO WAY I was going to attempt a Mickey Mouse cake.  I did a Google image search, and could immediately see how horrific my inevitable failure would be.  Nope.  Gotta do something different. 

In my desperation, I found the world of pre-printed cake toppers.  They were PERFECT for my situation!  You order a cake topper of your choice, printed and even personalized just for you.  They are $8 and made of sugar.  They store flat at room temperature and are sturdy enough to be mailed.  Then you just make a cake of the appropriate size, icen it (is that a word?), peel the topper off of the paper backing, and lay it on the cake.  The sugar dissolves into the icing so it's all one layer on the top of the cake, and voila!  Personalized birthday cake!  I ordered mine off of etsy (Mike made me order three in case the first two attempts didn't work), had them mailed to Grandma, and she brought them with her in the suitcase when she arrived at the first of June. 

The night before the party, I made the cake, iced it, and applied the topper: 

YEAH!  Got it right on the first try!

OK, now the party can start.

Everett had asked for a bowling party.  You are not allowed to reserve lanes at the bowling alley, so we were a little (ok, a lot) worried about not having two lanes or about having to wait.  Mike kept in close contact with the Filipino guy running the bowling alley, which means he pestered him to death the day before and the day of, and thank goodness, they were able to give us two lanes on the end.  It was great!  And, as I've said before, that bowling alley is so immaculate that it's a joy to be there.  No food, drinks, or smoking allowed.   The place is pristine. We put up balloons and streamers around our lanes.  Everett had 10 friends including Lawrence, plus one surprise sibling to help him celebrate. 

Getting ready for the festivities!

Friends are arriving.

Bowling the first frame.

Choose your ball....no, Lawrence, you may not have ALL the balls. 

A panorama of the scene.

Grandma was on Little Sister Duty.

Trying to bowl without the dinosaur. 

Fun!

After everyone bowled, we took a group picture.

Unfortunately, a beautiful bowling alley is a double edged sword.  No food and drinks to mess it up, but no food and drinks for a birthday party.  Ugh.  So we rented out a room in the Tandoori restaurant next door for after the bowling.  It worked pretty well!  But the AC in that room was WAY WAY too cold.  Here is the table all set for cake, weird ice cream served by the restaurant, juice, and presents.  See all the Mickey Mouse party supplies?!?

Here comes the cake.

Time for presents!

After cake and presents, we wound down and that was it.  PHEW.

We cleaned up and packed up and then wandered outside to the playground just outside the bowling alley and Tandoori.  Our next door neighbors hung out with us while we ran off the cake and ice cream. 

A great afternoon for a party!


The next day was Everett's real birthday.  It started off with a bang with a giant 5 candle in his breakfast muffin:

And his new 5 tshirt!

Now we're up to 1, 3, and 5.

This last one is my favorite one. 

Chair pictures are annual at this age.  Here's his big 5 chair picture.


Then on to presents in the garage. 

A bike!

(A bike, you ask?  How did we get a hold of a bike to give him?  No, this is not one of the crappy bikes they sell in the stores here.  We ordered two off of Amazon.  One went to Grandma, and she brought it with her as a checked bag when she arrived at the first of June.  Thank you, Grandma!!  The other went to Gramama, and it will be in Knoxville when we arrive there for summer repat.  So Everett can have his bike no matter where he is, and we don't have to travel with it.  Hooray!) 

We immediately jumped on and rode to Mike's friend's parents' house.

Lawrence was so excited about the bike part that he forwent his scooter and chose a tricycle instead.  It was good enthusiasm, but a bad choice; that thing is so hard to pedal.  He didn't make it the whole way on that trike, which was very frustrating since he could go the whole way in a heartbeat on his scooter. 

After lunch, we had more candles and cake (Mickey Mouse candles!), and our neighbors came over to help us sing Happy Birthday.  Then we all sang Happy Birthday in Welsh, too.  

Our afternoon bike ride.  Still trying on that trike, too.

Happy Birthday, big guy!  I remember thinking that you were never going to make it to three months, it seemed to take so long.  Somehow, we all made it.  Now you are five!  Wow!