A fun party

We had a wonderful birthday party and I think Gianna was very pleased to be reunited with all of her school friends.  I think all of the school friends were happy to be together again!

Look closely and you see a small smile!

We had the party at a local children's gym, and the two teachers who put it together did a great job keeping everyone moving and entertained.  They played music, jumped around and even played hide and seek.  Hide-and-seek was hilarious because all of the children hid in the same place, together. Seeing them all smush together, and then break apart trying to make room as they all moved under a mat to be "hidden" was hilarious. Not to mention hearing them (loudly) whisper, "Move over!" or "I need to get in!" etc. while hiding.

The cake (the "caaaake" a la Franck/Father of the Bride) was a complete disaster.  It is comical now, but when I picked it up, I almost fainted.  First of all, it is all my fault.  Last week, I was debating over and over (as I tend to do) about whether to go to the (real) bakery where I got RWF's birthday cake, or if I should just order simple cupcakes from the grocery store bakery.  I texted RWF for his "final answer" as I pulled into the grocery store parking lot. Getting no answer from him (and no doubt, on purpose for his part, because he got tired of my obsessing over the birthday party details), I went in and ordered birthday cupcakes at the store bakery.  When I approached the bakery person, she got - honestly - this deer in the headlights look on her face and asked me if my order would be simple, or if I wanted something from the cake order book (featuring Disney characters and "fancier" stuff). I told her that I just wanted simple, pink cupcakes, put together to resemble a whole cake (but that could be pulled apart for serving).  She asked me what color pink, and I produced a napkin from Gianna's birthday theme.  It was a pale pink, and I asked that the darker pink be used in the frosting to spell out "Happy Birthday Gianna."  She nodded, wrote everything down, confirmed the spelling of the name, and I walked off....with a feeling of, "Oh, I should have gone to the bakery."  But instead of turning right around and canceling the order, I just let it go.

On Sunday, I went to pick up the cake at the appointed time. Another lady was behind the counter and that was my first, "uh oh" moment because she didn't know about a cake order but then said, "Oh, here it is."  She came out with a NEON PINK cake, with light pink icing. But that color wasn't the problem. The problem was the cake looked terrible. Awful. Horrible.  I could not believe it. I kept looking at it, like, I don't know what...maybe there was something wrong with my eyes and I would start seeing the beautiful simple cake it really was...only it didn't change into a beautiful simple cake.  I saw more flaws...her name was spelled correctly (thank God) but the writing was not centered and it was too high, the (neon) pink frosting dribbling over the sides, frosting spread too thin on some of the cupcakes, blue frosting on the bottom of the cakes...huh?  I walked off and finished my last-minute shopping. I still had to buy baby carrots, celery and other snack foods for the party. I walked around the store with the cake glaring up at me in all of its gloopy, neon horribleness. Every time I walked back to the cart, I peered at the cake to see if it had changed into something pretty. No such luck.  I lined up to pay, thinking, "Why am I paying for this?" I wheeled my cart around to the front of the store to "Customer Service," except there was nobody there. The store was packed with Sunday afternoon shoppers trying to check out with a week's worth of groceries. None of the checkers or baggers would meet my eye, so I couldn't get anyone's attention.  Finally, I lined up again to check out.  Then I saw a lady wearing a sweater and button down shirt, checking in the next aisle over and thought, "She must be a manager."  "Excuse me..." I said very loudly.  She finished checking and walked over. "I'm not happy with this cake," I said.  She glanced down at it and said, "I agree," and to the checker she ordered, "Give her 10 percent off."  "Excuse me, do you see what I see? Look at this..." I gestured at the frosting. "And look, look at this blue frosting on the bottom..." She frowned as she examined the cake. "Wait," she said, and her eyes bugged out,  "Is this a custom order?"  She rolled her eyes and said, "Give her 20 percent off."  Turning her attention to me, she said that their bakery department was short-staffed and they were having trouble finding cake decorators.  We both lamented about the sad cake. I said, "I could have done a better job myself." But I paid for the cake and walked off.   As I drove home, I kept thinking about the stupid, ugly cake.  I thought about stopping at another grocery store and buying another cake. I thought about hiding the flaws under flowers maybe? Or maybe rose petals?  Ridiculous. At home, I showed RWF and his face confirmed what I was thinking. Suddenly, I was furious: WHY DID I PAY FOR THAT CAKE?  

It's all so silly now.  And it really didn't matter because they are children and they don't care what the cake looked like...but for me, it was the principle.  And also, I didn't fight the store because (a) damage done (and we needed a cake), and (b) I learned a lesson: never going to a grocery store bakery again.  There are no pictures of Gianna's party cake because it was just...awful. Seriously awful.

When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, Gianna kept blowing out the candles before Shayla (teacher) even set the cake down! As soon as Shayla leaned down to set her cake down, Gianna would start blowing.  We had to start over 3 (!!!) times. I guess Gianna just knew that she was supposed to blow out the candles and by golly, she was going to do it immediately. Finally, we convinced her to wait until after we sang "Happy Birthday." It was pretty funny. 

But the real fun was the party itself.  I had a lot of fun watching the children running around, squealing and laughing.  I was 'stuck' sitting down because Nico was gassy and unhappy (which is unfortunate). The blessing in having a gassy baby is that at least I had to sit, hold the baby and just watch the party...instead of running around trying to snap photos and worrying about that damn cake. 

Making funny faces

Everyone had fun.  Gianna had a great day and as we were driving away, she said, "Mommy, that was a fun party."    Yes, I agree: that was a fun party.

xo