Happy Birthday William !!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday we had William's 4th birthday party. I am getting better at understanding that for kid's birthday parties: people come over, eat, open presents and leave. Usually when we plan for people comming over we look at putting out a big spread of all different types of food and plan on people hanging out for a couple hours at least. When Jen asked me about the plans for William's birthday party I told her let's just keep it simple. Throw some hot dogs in the steamer, grab some chips and dip and call it a day and not go plan crazy. Jen agreed with me but then it got changed with carrots/dip and also a fruit tray with 4 different types of fruit. (funny I don't remember that in the original plan on keeping it simple). So Friday she gets rid of the kids to do some baking and cleaning of the house. She figured that she could get most of the stuff done at that time, but it didn't quite work out that way. Jen worked friday night and I worked on cleaning the house a little bit friday night so we could have a no-pressure kinda morning until the party started at noon. Saturday morning we all got up around 8:00ish so we are thinking 4 hours to knock out some of the little stuff and we are ready to go. Jen is working on getting the cake decorated, of course it's not just frost a cake, it's the "lightning McQueen" cake that requires all kids of different types of frosting tips and colors. At the begining of the frosting procedure (of course after the powdered sugar explosion in the kitchen) Jen quickly realized that she needed a color that she didn't have. She needed brown food coloring to make the red not so red (huh?) But the car is red. It must be a frosting thing. So I have everything else pretty much done for the party so I volunteer to buzz down to the store for the food coloring and a couple other little things that we forgot. I take Andrew with me since there is nothing like trying to decorate a cake and having an 18 month old crying to pick you up. So Andrew and I head down to the store that I figure will take about 15 minutes tops. Nope. I look for hot dog buns with the rest of the bread. Are they there? Nope, or not the ones that Jen told me were on sale, but I found them a few isles over. I look for crackers that Jen says were right by the front of the store, but of course they got moved. So I went to the cracker isle. Are they there? Nope. I just happened to stumble on them back by the pop and cheese. Yeah that makes sense. Next I look for the food coloring, so I find the display of cake decorating supplies. Is the food coloring there? Nope. I call jen and find out it's across the isle with the cake pans. (allrighty then) I am starting to get a little worried since this little jaunt is starting to take a little more time than I planned and I know Jen has alot of work to do on this cake. (There is a reason I don't do the grocery shopping) But hey, at least Andrew is behaving and having fun with me. So I quickly try to find a checkout isle that doesn't have an amish person buying half the store and decide to use the U-check out thing. I didn't want to use them originally since the buns were buy one get two free and I wasn't sure if it was automatic at the U-checkout thing. So I am checking myself out with my 6 items and I reach in my pocket for my wallet, and no wallet. Son of a B***h. I forgot that when I grabbed my clothes for the party that I changed jeans. So I leave my bag of stuff with the checkout dude and take Andrew and haul ass home to grab my wallet. So I go back and pay for my stuff and get home. Total time for the little jaunt was about an hour. Jen takes the food coloring and starts frosting like a fiend. I am also trying to get some last minute stuff done, trying to keep the kids happy, trying to keep Andrew from touching the steamer, and putting all of the food out. At noon Jen is still frosting the cake. As people start to arrive Jen finishes the cake and we all take a deep breath. After that we had a pretty good day. William had fun with the 3 other kids that showed up to the party. Most everyone else was friends and relatives. He got a ton of presents and really enjoyed the day. More "Cars" matchbox cars to add to the collection and some clothes that he quickly discarded to name a few things. Andrew also had alot of fun and also got some presents from Grandma. People came, ate, and then left after an hour or two. We got an extended visit with the Cramers when their car wouldn't start so I ran Keith home while they waited for the tow truck and Jen and Lori complained about us. After everyone left we got a little while to clean up a little bit and take it easy until Jen had to go to work. Another birthday down, thank God we kept it simple.